Systems, methods and computer program products for monitoring the behavior, health, and/or characteristics of an animal

A method for monitoring the behavior of an animal, the method comprising:

• detecting the presence of the animal;
• measuring a characteristic of the animal whenever presence of the animal is detected;
• storing the measured characteristics of the animal;
• calculating derived data from the measured characteristics;
• and
• comparing the measured characteristic and/or derived data to stored threshold alert data and sending an alert when the measured characteristic and/or derived data crosses the threshold alert data.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer code executable by a processor, the computer program product comprising:

• computer code for detecting the presence of an animal;
• computer code for measuring a characteristic of the animal whenever presence of the animal is detected;
• computer code for storing the measured characteristics of the animal;
• computer code for calculating derived data from the measured characteristics;
• and
• computer code for comparing the measured characteristic and/or derived data to stored threshold alert data and for sending an alert when the measured characteristic and/or derived data crosses the threshold alert data.