A zoo is an expensive business – especially when it comes to the heating bill. Think about it – hundreds of animals from warmer climates, all of which you have to keep comfortable. Add to that the fact that animals don’t sleep like humans do. Rather than settling down for the night and sleeping through until morning, they doze for a while, get up and mosey about the place, and then have another nap. That means zookeepers have to keep the heating on throughout every animal enclosure all day and all night long – no matter where the animals are.

Or do they? Andy Stanford-Clark, IBM UK’s CTO, has been working with Marwell Zoo near Winchester to come up with an IoT solution that keeps the animals warm while reducing the zoo’s energy bill and carbon footprint.