Frameworks and platforms for monitoring animal health and wellness in human care and in the wild

The revolution of data and connectivity of the twenty-first century left behind one of the most fragile parts of our planet and yet to be connected. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 120,372 species were assessed in 2020, with 20% categorized as 'data deficient'. When a species is categorized as data deficient that prevents the species from appearing in the Red List of endangered animals and therefore that species does not receive the attention needed for preservation and conservation. It is not only wild exotic animals that lack data for a better understanding of their habit, anatomy, physiology and health. Some species already extinct in the wild have been preserved in zoos. The development of novel technologies though data and information may enable professionals such as veterinarians and zoologists to understand animal behavioural and physiological responses with a depth never studied, thus playing an important role in species conservation. This chapter provides an overview of information systems frameworks along with sensing devices, computing systems and platforms within the context of animal monitoring from a generic perspective. A brief history lays the foundation for human monitoring frameworks and platforms. This chapter also introduces the concept and examples of animal data, how it is acquired, transformed, analysed, stored and explored. Within this chapter, we propose that health and wellness monitoring is a form of clinical decision support system (CDSS) from the perspective of the computer science foundations.