Every time one of the small monkeys at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo eats, drinks or jumps, a Ball State University student notes the activity while watching the animals on a computer monitor on campus nearly 70 miles away.

As part of an immersive learning class, students are using video over broadband (VOB) to closely track the lives of several squirrel-sized tamarins, colorful inhabitants of tropical rain forests and open forest regions of Central and South America.

"Never in my life did I think I would be able to write up behavioral data on tamarins in my junior year of college," said Brody Warren, a junior from Washington, Ill. "But using the latest video technologies, my fellow classmates and I have been able to collect some amazing information.

"The project has allowed me to get out of the classroom to work at the zoo," he said, adding that he believes this experience will pay dividends in terms of his career.

"I've already had a really great interview with the Indianapolis Zoo because of this research project. I think the experience of working directly with animals while in school will be a real asset when I go looking for a job in a couple of years."

Video underused

While video monitoring systems are not new, they are underused, said Gary Dodson, a Ball State biology professor mentoring the student group.

"Being able to observe the animals over the Internet connection offers amazing advantages for us," he explained. "We can study them every day and at any time of day without the significant costs and time investment required if we had to travel to Fort Wayne for every session. 

"The potential research questions are also much more numerous. One of the greatest constraints on animal behavior research is the observer effect that prevents us from knowing whether an animal is exhibiting a behavior in the same way that it would if we were not present. We avoid that issue with the VOB camera setup."

Students watch the animals live, capturing data and immediately correcting for most problems that might arise.

"Our cameras also enable us to listen to the surrounding sounds together with the visual image and even to communicate verbally via the camera," Dodson said. "This produces the exciting possibility of having a research partner at the zoo who can introduce instantaneous stimuli at points determined on the fly through messages exchanged via the network camera."

Video upgrade paying benefits

Network engineers from Ball State's Networking and Communications upgraded the zoo's video system last year after Dodson completed his initial immersive learning class that produced educational videos for use by zoo visitors.

"In selecting our major projects for the future, we were determined to take advantage of emerging video capability that also required a high capacity network," Dodson said. "The university's network engineers collaborated with the zoo to complete a major overhaul of the zoo's digital data and video infrastructure. As a result, high bandwidth projects such as VOB are now possible, providing the opportunity for this kind of research on zoo animals."

Zoo officials are pleased with the partnership, which not only has attracted several high ability students to work as interns at their facility, but also may lead to changes in the zoo's environment, said Cheryl Piropato, the zoo's education director.

"The zoo has always been firmly committed to providing excellent animal health," Piropato said. "By observing the tamarins for hundreds of hours, students were able to pinpoint some changes to the tamarins' environment that could lead to improved health and well-being. 

"Ball State staff and students have approached every project with enthusiasm and creativity. The projects that Gary Dodson selects are always geared to give us real and useful information that we can put to use in animal care, education and marketing."

By Marc Ransford, Media Relations Manager