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discussion / Acoustics  / 29 September 2025

Non invasive heartbeat monitoring for natterjack toads

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Hi,

For a sound art project I am looking for non invasive heartbeat (or breath) monitoring technologies to record the heartbeat of natterjack toads in their natural environment. Any suggestion or advice will be much appreciated!



Robert (Bob) Zak
@rcz133
Camera Trap Technologist at Large
Conversation starter level 2
Commenter level 2
Popular level 1

3 October 2025 5:35pm

I have no experience with this technology, or natterjack toads :)  But a friend of mine did some of the early work on remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) in humans.  According to Google, it hasn't been tried in toads (of any kind), but might work ?  If it does, would allow you to extract heart rate from a video feed.  There are apparently a number of tools available, so you wouldn't be starting from scratch.