In order to protect and manage a wildlife population, it is necessary to determine the population size, where the animals are located, and what types of habitats they prefer. In the past, researchers have used tracking surveys (e.g. footprints in the snow) to answer these questions. With today's technology, researchers are able to attach devices (collars) to individual animals to record their locations as they move across the landscape. This new technique provides researchers with large amounts of quality data.
From the 1980's to the late 1990's very high frequency (VHF) radio collars were attached to animals that emitted a radio beacon that could be heard using a radio receiver. That signal allowed researchers to estimate the animal's location, using triangulation. As technology advanced, GPS was incorporated into VHF radio collars which communicated with satellites to record the animal's location. This data was stored in the collar and could be retrieved once the collar was removed from the animal. About 5 years ago, cell phone technology was incorporated into these GPS/VHF collars where the devices could then send the GPS data to researchers via Short Message Service (SMS) text messages.
This SMS technology is what is now used in New Hampshire to monitor bobcats. These 'cell phone' collars have saved researchers thousands of dollars that would have been spent on field labor attempting to obtain at best a few, moderately-accurate locations for each animal each week. Instead, these collars (which cost about $5,000 each) provide researchers with approximately 25 highly accurate GPS locations per week over the span of a year without researchers ever having to leave the office.
This large amount of highly precise data allows researchers to accurately calculate bobcat home ranges, determine habitat selection, and produce population estimates for the State quicker and easier than ever before.
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| Derek and I putting a cell phone tracking collar on a bobcat! |
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