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

Abstract Cardiac rate and rhythm reveal how animals adapt physiologically to day-to-day challenges, with consequences for health and fitness. However, these data remain difficult to collect in wild animals, despite their relevance for individual health and fitness. Here, we present a system for collecting and transmitting long-term, fine-scaled physiological data in wild animals. We implanted Bluetooth-enabled cardiac and physiological monitor devices in three wild adult female baboons in the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya and paired these devices with collars that enabled remote data downloads over long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN). The system performed well over >10 months, providing the first long-term cardiac data in wild primates. The baboons showed strong circadian patterns in heart rate, heart rate variability, and activity. We also present data on one female who left her social group for unknown reasons; while alone she exhibited higher heart rate variability, lower activity, and evidence of disrupted sleep. In sum, physiologgers paired with low-energy methods of remote data retrieval are powerful tools for investigating physiology in wild animals on timescales that extend over many months, with minimal disruption to their behavior. Full Text Availability The license terms selected by the author(s) for this preprint version do not permit archiving in PMC. The full text is available from the preprint server.