Ireland’s Dublin Zoo has been protecting flamingos and ostrich eggs from nighttime attack thanks to infrared and thermal video technology.

Night video footage of the zoo’s African Savanna habitat revealed a mysterious number of injuries to flamingos could be explained by otter attacks – and incidences of missing ostrich eggs were the result of wild badgers eating them at night.

Staff at Dublin Zoo were then able to respond by re-housing the predators.

“The large eggs were being rolled under a gate, up a hill and then smashed on a rock, whereupon a badger set was getting a tasty meal at our ostriches’ expense,” said Gerry Creighton, animals and grounds operations manager at Dublin Zoo. “We were able to lay humane traps to catch these badgers and then resettle them in the parkland beyond the outer perimeter of the zoo.”

The zoo – which used Milestone video surveillance software and Axis thermal and infrared cameras to achieve its results – has also used the data gathered to assist in-depth animal behaviour studies.

Senior zookeeper Brendan Walsh has completed a soon-to-be-released three-year study of the sleep patterns of the zoo’s eight elephants, based on filming from the bull and cow elephant houses.

“We learned a great deal about the varied sleeping patterns of elephants at different ages. Elephants sleep on average about four hours per night. They get this sleep in chunks, which tend to get longer as they get older,” Walsh said.

“For example, a young elephant will wake up more than 20 times per night, but older ones may only rise four times between the hours of 12am and 7am. That said, the oldest cow of the group – the matriarch – will sleep very little when elephant calves are around, as she sees it as her job to alert them to any impending danger.”

Ann added bonus is the footage has created a live webcam on the zoo’s website – an opportunity to interact with visitors and boost online and social media engagement.