Future trends in measuring physiology in free-living animals.

Area of Science:

• Ecophysiology
• Bio-logging
• Animal behavior

Background:

• Ecophysiology research traditionally relies on controlled lab settings.
• Current animal-attached logging devices for wild animals are limited.
• The field of physiological logging in wild animals is nascent.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review future research directions in 'physiologging' for wild animals.
• To identify technological, fiscal, and ethical challenges.
• To propose leveraging human wearable technology for animal monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Review of current technologies and future research directions.
• Analysis of challenges in physiological data collection from free-ranging animals.
• Proposal for interdisciplinary collaboration between human wearable developers and animal tagging researchers.

Main Results:

• Technological advancements in human wearables offer a model for animal physiologging.
• Non-invasive, multi-sensor devices can be developed for ethical animal data collection.
• Synergistic advances in both human and animal health monitoring are possible.

Conclusions:

• Collaboration is key to developing advanced, non-invasive animal monitoring tools.
• Leveraging human wearable technology can overcome current limitations in ecophysiology.
• This interdisciplinary approach promises significant advancements in understanding free-ranging animals and human health.