A team of technological experts from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Cornell University, with biological input from the AREAS Project, are investigating innovative ideas to improve the accuracy and feasibility of radio-tracking wide-ranging animals.

Improved radio transmitters

This and many other studies of animal movement utilize very high frequency (VHF) radio transmitter technology to help locate individual animals. VHF radios allow accurate location of marked animals, but have limited range when researchers are on the ground (sometimes only about 1km).

The size and weight of the transmitter limits either its lifespan, the strength (range) of its signal, or the frequency of its signal. Collars for birds must be particularly light (less than 5 percent of their weight) to avoid hindering their flight patterns.

In the initial development stage of the project, the Moore Foundation-Cornell University technology team is working to improve both the range (area covered) and accuracy of transmitters. New technologies and lightweight materials will allow radio collars to carry longer-lasting transmitters so research teams can monitor their species for longer periods.

Their early findings indicate that it may be necessary to begin by combining a transmitter with long range with the more traditional very high frequency (VHF) radio carried by a researcher to accurately "track" a radio tagged animal to its location (and observe it).

What about GPS and satellite transmitters?

GPS (Global Positioning System) transmitters (in photo at right) collect a geographic location reading of the marked animal.

Satellite transmitters send signals to satellites and are received by researchers either remotely through a separate agency that downloads and interprets the data.

Both of these transmitters would be very helpful for work in the Amazon, given the difficult and inaccessible terrain and the wide-ranging species we are studying. However, both have limitations that currently make their use impossible for this project.

To operate continuously for several months or a year, the GPS unit requires battery power that is too heavy to be used with birds or small mammals. In addition, we discovered, after a week of tests, that GPS collars have difficulty capturing satellite signals under tree canopy, where our target mammals spend their time.

Satellite transmitters, the lightest of which weigh approximately 30 grams, are also too heavy for macaws. Also, their accuracy of approximately 1km², limits their ability to help determine habitat use by the marked individual.

Data Management System

One project involves designing a comprehensive data management system -- meaning a central database that is capable of preserving all data types including those from IKONOS, WinRock, TEAM and those doing other monitoring work on-the-ground.

Communication and Data Transfer Towers

The Moore Foundation and Cornell tech teams are investigating innovative ideas that will allow tracking with a few remotely-spaced fixed receivers on towers, which will allow on-the-ground research teams to more easily find marked animals and to track them to places with difficult entry. Receivers placed on canopy-level towers can track a large number of animals with relatively little human input. These towers, which will reach up to 50 meters, will be placed on terraces - high flat areas that rise above the rivers. Their placement at these higher-elevation sites will allow the towers to reach above tall trees to enable visual microwave communication and data transfer between towers and to receive data transmitted by radio collars worn by our target animals from much larger distances.

Using maps and GPS readings, AREAS project and Moore Foundation staff recently identified and visited potential sites for these towers (see sites and map below). Construction of the first towers should begin later in 2004.

Aerial photos by Winrock, International, October 2003

Winrock International has recently conducted overflights of the Los Amigos concession to test their M3DADI high-resolution aerial sensing method. During these flights, the photo research team took aerial photos of the concession at 50cm resolution and various transects outside of the concession at 10cm. They covered 300,000 hectares and are now using the aerial photo information to develop a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the area.

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