Telemetry in Wildlife Studies

Wildlife Tracking

• Wildlife tracking is a process whereby biologists, scientific researchers or conservation agencies can remotely observe relatively fine-scale movement or migratory patterns in a free-ranging wild animal using Positioning Systems and optional environmental sensors or automated data-retrieval.
• Animal tracking data helps to understand how individuals and populations move within local areas, migrate across oceans and continents and evolve across generations.

History of Telemetry

• Word telemetry is derived from Greek word, meaning distance measuring
• 1900-Marking / Tagging
• Late 1950s-Researchers began using radio transmitters to track wildlife.
• Late 1970s-The Argos satellite system provided a new method for tracking animals globally.
• Early 1990s the global positioning system (GPS) began to provide the potential to obtain high-resolution tracking data.
• Since the twentieth century, improved communication systems, shrinking battery sizes and other technological developments have led to arrange of methods for tracking animals.

Types of positioning systems & their features

Light Level Logger or Geo locators

• Light-level loggers are tags that collect measurements of light levels. The light level information is used to estimate sunrise and sunset times, which are used to estimate the movement of the animal.\

Features:

• Small, have low weight and drag, long lasting and cost effective. This method allows a much cheaper and much smaller device to be constructed which records for a far longer time (many years).
• Marine species that spend most of their time below the ocean surface where they cannot be tracked by satellites or radio receivers.

VHF (Very High Frequency) Transmitter

• Also known as a pulse collar, VHF transmitters attached to a study animal emit a pulsed radio signal allowing a person to physically locate and observe the animal by homing into the signal using a receiver and directional antenna.

Features

1. VHF transmitters are easy to use, reliable, versatile and affordable providing exceptional value.

2. They can be used for a wide variety of animals, and the operating life of the

battery can last up to three years. This type of collar can be available with an

internal antenna as an option for use when there is a high chance of the antenna being chewed.

GPS Transmitter

• A GPS tag calculates the location of an animal at specific time intervals using positions estimated by GPS satellites.

Features

• These tags can provide high-resolution and accurate (within meters) location estimations for animals.
• The main advantage GPS collars have over VHF collars is that data can be collected at any time of the day or night remotely and regularly. Most GPS collars are also fitted with VHF capabilities so animals can still be tracked conventionally, allowing for observational research to be conducted.

Types of GPS collars:

• GPS collar with Argos uplink
• GPS collar with Iridium uplink
• GPS collar with ground download utility via VHF or UHF
• GPS collar with GSM download

Data Retrieval

Platform Transmitter Terminals (PTTs)

Locations are logged and can then be downloaded in various ways.

• The older GPS collars used to store the data until the collar was retrieved. Now, most GPS collars allow the data to be downloaded remotely.

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