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Satellite Telemetry
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The movements of wide-ranging animals, such as migrants, or animals occurring in remote areas, such as polar regions or the open seas, can be radio tracked through satellites. Most satellite telemetry involves use of the Argos or the GPS systems. In some cases data from these two systems are combined. The main advantage of satellite telemetry is that many types of animals can be tracked anywhere around the earth. There are restrictions to its use because the equipment placed on the animal is large compared to some other types of wildlife telemetry, and for some objectives the accuracy and precision of the location estimates might not be acceptable.
Satellite telemetry is used by several SRFS staff and cooperators in research of the long distance movements of many bird species. Swainson's hawks and peregrine falcons, fitted with special transmitters called platform transmitter terminals (PTTs) are tracked from North American breeding grounds, along migration routes, and to their austral summer areas in South America. Snowy owls are tracked through the Arctic. Golden eagles, ferruginous hawks, prairie falcons, white faced ibis, American white pelicans, and common loons are "followed" around North America. Using information from the Argos-Tiros satellite system, data management software, movement analysis software, and mapping programs, including GIS, the movements of the birds and their geographic associations can be studied. SRFS staff use these technologies and capabilities in collaboration with colleagues at Boise State University (Raptor Research Center, and Department of Biology), the University of Maryland-Baltimore (Center for Conservation Research and Technology) for several Department of the Interior and Department of Defense projects.
We are demonstrating an application that tracks military activity with GPS while simultaneously tracking raptors using Argos satellite telemetry. This pilot project utilizes ESRI's Arcview software. The application focuses on the display of the movement of points in the same time sequence in which they were recorded. Through ArcView we can readily share GIS based information with the several military and government land managers with whom we are collaborating in a demonstration for the Department of Defense LEGACY program.
Mark Fuller
Address: USGS Snake River Field Station
Address: 970 Lusk Street
Address: Boise, ID 83706
Phone: 208-426-4115
E-mail: mark_fuller@usgs.gov
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