An Engineering
student, Kim Grant, asked us how to weigh penguins and monkeys at a zoo. The animals need to be weighed in order to determine their
health. Because the fur and feathers tend to camouflage an animals' weight, a system of
weighing the animals is imperative. One of the problems encountered by the engineering
student when designing the weighing system is ".. monkeys do not stand still and
penguins do not travel alone."
Hi Kim,
There are several methods we have used
successfully for weighing difficult animals. A few suggestions follow:
1.) Penguins:
If it causes too much commotion and stress on the animal to individually select and weigh
them, I recommend a platform scale (large enough for only one bird) be placed under a food
dispenser. In that way, only one bird at a time will be weighed. The food or
the debris on the scale can be "zero-ed out" before each weighing.
Are you able to identify each bird visually to determine weight of bird and subsequent
changes? If not, and a marking system is used, you may be forced to select and
individually weigh each penguin.
2.) Monkeys:
Due to the dexterity of the subjects, a sling scale is the easiest, again if you select
and weigh. If not, then a weigh bar, placed in an area of high traffic, could weigh
individual animals. As each one hangs from the bar their weight can be measured.
Both scales should be stainless steel and
hermetically sealed so they will stand up to excrement, washdowns, etc.
We will need to know the dimensions required for
the scales, but I imagine we could build each custom electronic digital scale, including
digital readout, for $600.00 to 1100.00.
I hope this information is of help to you.
Best Regards,
Jon L. Stimpson
President
Measurement Specialists, Inc.
1-800-899-9988
tech@measurespec.com
For similar articles see:
How Truck Scales work
How Load Cells work
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