Veterinary Medicine

From veterinary medicine, to studying animals in the wild, infrared technology is helping us to care for our four-legged friends.

Even a relatively inexpensive infrared camera can detect the hotspot signature of arthritis in an animal's joints.

Animal care

To prevent animals from becoming stressed during medical exams (especially large animals, like horses and elephants), veterinarians use infrared cameras to examine animals without touching them.

More blood than normal flows to a bad bruise or an injured muscle in order to help it heal, so the location of an injury tends to be warmer than the area surrounding it. Veterinarians can check an animal for bruises and injuries without disturbing it, by using infrared cameras to look for warm patches.

Studying animals

Animal behaviorists use infrared cameras to locate and study the behavior and movement of warm-blooded animals in the dark, without disturbing their habitat.

As humans, we’ve lost most of our fur, so we use clothing to insulate ourselves from the cold. By studying infrared images of different kinds of animals, we’ve learned how animals insulate themselves, using feathers, fur, and blubber.

Published: 26 August, 2013

Fun Fact

Shooting stars are actually tiny pieces of rock and dust that are burning up in our atmosphere. Many of these particles are left over from the tails of passing comets, so you could say you're seeing a falling comet tail, rather than a falling star.