System and method for identifying, tracking, and monitoring behaviors of laboratory animals within an animal cage

A method for animal identification and tracking comprises:

• during a dark cycle:
• illuminating an interior volume of an animal cage, occupied by a population of animals, with light outside of a visible light range via an optical emitter;
• and
• at a first time, capturing a first image of the interior volume of the animal cage;
• detecting a first identification tag in a first region of the first image;
• extracting a first set of tag features from the first region of the first image;
• identifying a first animal identifier of a first animal, tagged with the first identification tag, based on the first set of tag features;
• interpreting a first animal position of the first animal occupying the animal cage based on a first pixel position of the first identification tag in the first image;
• appending an animal cage log with:
• the first animal identifier of the first animal;
• a first timestamp corresponding to the first time;
• and
• the first animal position of the first animal;
• during a light cycle:
• at a second time succeeding the first time, capturing a second image of the interior volume of the animal cage;
• detecting a second identification tag in a second region of the second image;
• extracting a second set of tag features from the second region of the second image;
• identifying a second animal identifier of a second animal, tagged with the second identification tag, based on the first set of tag features;
• interpreting a second animal position of the second animal occupying the animal cage based on a second pixel position of the second identification tag in the second image;
• and
• appending the animal cage log with:
• the second animal identifier of the second animal;
• a second timestamp corresponding to the second time;
• and
• the second animal position of the second animal.