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TailTagger: Tracking Animal Interactions with Enrichment Devices
- Program: Center for Leadership Education
- Course: EN.660.346 Multidisciplinary Engineering Design
- Year: 2025
Project Description:
In collaboration with the Maryland Zoo, we have developed a tracking device capable of monitoring the amount of animal interaction with enrichment devices. Our Arduino Nano, clock module, and SD Card reader allow for our tracking device to monitor the amount of time animals spend interacting with their enrichment devices per hour. Our TailTagger tracker’s electronics are placed inside a 3D printed encasing and attach to any hanging or ball enrichment device. After our Tailtagger is taken out of the exhibit, the SD Card is removed and its contents are uploaded to our interactive Enrichment Tracker app where zookeepers can visualize the amount of animal interaction per hour for each enrichment device. Our TailTagger tracking device is water resistant, animal-safe, and durable – it offers a solution for zookeepers to accurately detect when an enrichment device is being used, which will allow for an enriched animal quality of life.
Project Photo:
TailTagger uses an Arduino Nano, Clock Module, and SD Card Reader to record data on an SD card. It is housed in an animal-safe PLA encasing with modular attachments for use with both feeder balls and hanging nets at the zoo.
