Going wild: what a global small-animal tracking system could do for experimental biologists (original) (raw)
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Avian Conservation and Ecology, 2017
We describe a new collaborative network, the Motus Wildlife Tracking System (Motus; https://motus.org), which is an international network of researchers using coordinated automated radio-telemetry arrays to study movements of small flying organisms including birds, bats, and insects, at local, regional, and hemispheric scales. Radio-telemetry has been a cornerstone of tracking studies for over 50 years, and because of current limitations of geographic positioning systems (GPS) and satellite transmitters, has remained the primary means to track movements of small animals with high temporal and spatial precision. Automated receivers, along with recent miniaturization and digital coding of tags, have further improved the utility of radio-telemetry by allowing many individuals to be tracked continuously and simultaneously across broad landscapes. Motus is novel among automated arrays in that collaborators employ a single radio frequency across receiving stations over a broad geographic scale, allowing individuals to be detected at sites maintained by others. Motus also coordinates, disseminates, and archives detections and associated metadata in a central repository. Combined with the ability to track many individuals simultaneously, Motus has expanded the scope and spatial scale of research questions that can be addressed using radio-telemetry from local to regional and even hemispheric scales. Since its inception in 2012, more than 9000 individuals of over 87 species of birds, bats, and insects have been tracked, resulting in more than 250 million detections. This rich and comprehensive dataset includes detections of individuals during all phases of the annual cycle (breeding, migration, and nonbreeding), and at a variety of spatial scales, resulting in novel insights into the movement behavior of small flying animals. The value of the Motus network will grow as spatial coverage of stations and number of partners and collaborators increases. With continued expansion and support, Motus can provide a framework for global collaboration, and a coordinated approach to solving some of the most complex problems in movement biology and ecology. Le Système de suivi de la faune Motus : un réseau de recherche collaboratif visant à mieux comprendre le déplacement des animaux RÉSUMÉ. Le Système de suivi de la faune Motus (Motus; https://motus.org), un nouveau réseau collaboratif de chercheurs internationaux, repose sur un ensemble coordonné de stations automatisées de radiotélémétrie pour étudier le déplacement de petits organismes volant, comme les oiseaux, les chauves-souris et les insectes, aux échelles locales et régionales, et à celle de l'hémisphère. Pierre angulaire pour les études de suivi depuis plus de 50 ans, la radiotélémétrie est encore le principal moyen de suivre le déplacement de petits animaux avec une grande précision temporelle et spatiale, en raison des limites que présentent les émetteurs basés sur le système de positionnement géographique (GPS) ou satellite. Des stations réceptrices automatisées, de pair avec la récente miniaturisation et le codage digital des émetteurs, sont derrière l'utilité accrue de la radiotélémétrie, qui permet désormais de suivre constamment et simultanément de nombreux individus sur de vastes territoires. Parmi les dispositifs automatisés, Motus est novateur car il permet aux collaborateurs l'emploi d'une fréquence radio unique pour toutes les stations réceptrices installées sur le vaste territoire, chacun des
Technology on the move: recent and forthcoming innovations for tracking migratory birds
2011
Basic questions about the life histories of migratory birds have confounded scientists for generations, yet we are nearing an era of historic discovery as new tracking technologies make it possible to determine the timing and routes of an increasing number of bird migrations. Tracking small flying animals as they travel over continental-scale distances is a difficult logistical and engineering challenge.
PeerJ, 2015
Consumer-grade GPS units are a staple of modern field ecology, but the relatively large error radii reported by manufacturers (up to 10 m) ostensibly precludes their utility in measuring fine-scale movement of small animals such as insects. Here we demonstrate that for data collected at fine spatio-temporal scales, these devices can produce exceptionally accurate data on step-length and movement patterns of small animals. With an understanding of the properties of GPS error and how it arises, it is possible, using a simple field protocol, to use consumer grade GPS units to collect step-length data for the movement of small animals that introduces a median error as small as 11 cm. These small error rates were measured in controlled observations of real butterfly movement. Similar conclusions were reached using a ground-truth test track prepared with a field tape and compass and subsequently measured 20 times using the same methodology as the butterfly tracking. Median error in the gr...
Chapter 13 Using Isoscapes to Track Animal Migration
2009
Animal migration is a phenomenon that has captured the imagination of scientist and layperson alike and continues to fascinate as new insights into the biological mechanisms behind these movements are uncovered. No less fascinating have been the myriad of innovative tools researchers have used to monitor animal movements and to establish linkages between individuals and populations as they move throughout their annual cycles. These tools can broadly be categorized as exogenous and endogenous (reviewed by Hobson and Norris 2008). Exogenous markers are those devices affixed to an animal for later retrieval and so facilitating a mark-recapture approach or as active transmitters that broadcast the location of an animal via radioor satellite-based technology. More recently, geographic locator tags have been developed that monitor time and daylight cycles that can ultimately be translated into latitude and longitude once downloaded at recapture. However, the most widely used and versatile...
Using Isoscapes to Track Animal Migration
Isoscapes, 2009
Animal migration is a phenomenon that has captured the imagination of scientist and layperson alike and continues to fascinate as new insights into the biological mechanisms behind these movements are uncovered. No less fascinating have been the myriad of innovative tools researchers have used to monitor animal movements and to establish linkages between individuals and populations as they move throughout their annual cycles. These tools can broadly be categorized as exogenous and endogenous (reviewed by Hobson and Norris 2008). Exogenous markers are those devices affixed to an animal for later retrieval and so facilitating a mark-recapture approach or as active transmitters that broadcast the location of an animal via radioor satellite-based technology. More recently, geographic locator tags have been developed that monitor time and daylight cycles that can ultimately be translated into latitude and longitude once downloaded at recapture. However, the most widely used and versatile exogenous marker has been a simple numbered tag or leg band and to date, millions of migratory birds have been so marked. This approach has been moderately successful for those individuals with a high probability of recapture such as hunted species, those with high site fidelity, or those that congregate in large numbers (Hobson 2003). However, the technique is clearly inadequate for most of the world's migratory organisms. This has led to a great deal of interest