Real-time heart rate in the wild: remote collection of cardiac data in baboons using a low-power Bluetooth and...

1. Cardiac rate and rhythm reveal how animals adapt physiologically to day-to-day challenges. Yet collecting these data in wild animals presents major challenges for long-term data collection and for retrieving the data noninvasively. 2. Here, we present a key advance for collecting and transmitting continuous, fine-scaled physiological data in wild animals over several months. Working in the Amboseli baboon population in Kenya, we implanted Bluetooth-enabled (BLE) physiologgers in three wild adult female baboons and paired these devices with collars that enabled remote data downloads via long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN). 3. The system allowed: (1) continuous data collection over 11 months; (2) data downloads at distances >100 m; (3) data uploads to a cloud server from a remote site with unreliable cellular service; and (4) reliable performance in the absence of permanent network infrastructure (e.g., no LoRaWAN tower). The resulting data are the first long-term cardiac data in a wild primate. We also present data from one female who left her social group for unknown reasons (baboons are highly social and females rarely leave their groups). While alone, she exhibited higher heart rate variability, lower activity, and evidence of disrupted sleep. 4. In sum, physiologgers paired with BLE and LoRaWAN overcome the limitations of prior devices and represent powerful tools for investigating long-term physiological change in wild animals.