Smart Monkey Lab
Curious Eyes, Smart Tech: The Smart Monkey Lab explores the social lives of Japanese macaques using new technologies
The Smart Monkey Lab project is funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) as part of the BRIDGE program (project no. 4639393, duration 2023-2026).
What happens when a long-established monkey group suddenly splits up? How do the animals find their way back to each other? And how can we not only observe these fascinating social processes, but also capture them digitally? These are exactly the questions driving a new research project at the Affenberg Landskron in Carinthia, Austria: the Smart Monkey Lab.
A Turning Point in Monkey Society
For over 23 years, 173 semi-free-ranging Japanese macaques lived in a stable community at Affenberg in Landskron, Carinthia. But in spring 2020, a natural group split triggered a fresh start: dominance hierarchies shifted, new bonds formed, and the entire social fabric changed. To study these changes, the enclosure at Affenberg was expanded for the first time — a unique opportunity for researchers at the Smart Monkey Lab to observe, under controlled conditions, how the animals respond to a new habitat and reshape their social dynamics .
Where Behavioral Research Meets Digital Innovation
In the Smart Monkey Lab, researchers from the University of Vienna, digital experts from the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (SIENA research group), and the Affenberg park management are bridging classical field observation with cutting-edge AI-driven technology. Together, they’re developing a concept to document the macaques’ complex social behavior accurately, ethically, and in a way that works in everyday practice.
Instead of relying solely on handwritten notes for traditional behavioral documentation, the project utilizes a range of digital innovations:
- A user-friendly field app that makes data collection simple and structured
- AI-powered image recognition that automatically identifies and tracks individual monkeys in photos and videos
- A smart database for monkey data
- Thermal drone images that reveals how the group distributes across the habitat at night – all without disturbing the animals
Research You Can Join: Citizen Science at Affenberg
What’s especially exciting: the project opens science up to everyone. Through newly designed citizen science initiatives, park visitors will be invited to actively participate in data collection. This doesn’t just provide valuable support for the researchers; it also creates innovative, digital experiences that make a trip to Affenberg even more interactive.
From Carinthia to the World
What begins at Affenberg has the potential to go global. The Smart Monkey Lab not only conducts modern behavioral research and generates valuable insights into Austria’s macaque population at Affenberg, but also delivers a flexible, adaptable concept for zoos, wildlife parks, and scientific projects worldwide. In the long run, it paves new paths for conservation, sustainable tourism, and technological innovation – with strong practical and commercial potential.
Over the coming months, we’ll share updates, take you behind the scenes of the fieldwork, and show how AI and biology are joining forces to open new frontiers in animal observation. We’re excited to have you along for the journey.
