title: An automatic weighting system for wild animals based in an artificial neural network: how to weigh wild animals without causing stress.
abstract: This paper proposes a novel and autonomous weighing system for wild animals. It allows evaluating changes in the body weight of animals in their natural environment without causing stress. The proposed system comprises a smart scale designed to estimate individual body weights and their temporal evolution in a bird colony. The system is based on computational intelligence, and offers valuable large amount of data to evaluate the relationship between long-term changes in the behavior of individuals and global change. The real deployment of this system has been for monitoring a breeding colony of lesser kestrels (Falco naumanni) in southern Spain. The results show that it is possible to monitor individual weight changes during the breeding season and to compare the weight evolution in males and females.
authors: Department of Electronic Technology, University of Seville, 41011 Seville, Spain. dlarios@us.es
authors: Diego Francisco
authors: DF
authors: Larios
authors: Carlos
authors: C
authors: Rodríguez
authors: Julio
authors: J
authors: Barbancho
authors: Manuel
authors: M
authors: Baena
authors: Miguel Leal
authors: ML
authors: Angel
authors: Jesús
authors: J
authors: Marín
authors: Carlos
authors: C
authors: León
authors: Javier
authors: J
authors: Bustamante
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D001717:Birds; D001835:Body Weight; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D012621:Seasons; D013030:Spain