Bird life tracking
Bird life tracking
A TraceME Micro is small enough to be a real-time bird tracking system (example here). The on-board connectivity allows the position of the bird to be fully traced while the animal is entering a race or flying around in it's natural habitat. The flight data can be streamed to your computer and the exact flight paths and elevation of your bird flight can be viewed on Google Earth, analyzed and shared. Some examples of this use could be for pigeon racing or wild life observation.The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is an independent charitable research institute combining professional and citizen science aimed at using evidence of change in wildlife populations, particularly birds, to inform the public, opinion-formers and environmental policy- and decision-makers.
The migratory patterns of animals are changing in response to global environmental change. Previously wholly migratory species now have resident populations in Southern Europe. The causes of these changes are not fully established but both climatic change and increased winter food availability have been proposed as possible factors.
EU guidelines to reduce the organic part of the waste deposited in landfill sites, makes an opportunity to study the consequences of a dramatic reduction in winter food availability for resident individuals of a partially migratory population.. We will test if this sudden reduction in winter food availability differentially affects individual migratory behaviour and mortality depending on sex, foraging site selection and body condition.
We trap storks in landfill sites and deploy them with TraceME modules. These enable us to track white storks’ movements for several months. The high resolution GPS data allows us to identify which habitats are used and to quantify daily movement pre and post landfill closure. This information will enable us to assess changes in individual behaviour as a consequence of landfill closures.
Benefits
Unique insights in bird behaviour, specified per bird and ability to follow them remotely and in a natural fashion. Previously not possible with the use of GPS bird tracking.