I remember years ago trying to think of ways I could attach pet tracking devices to local city pigeons to do my own DIY tracking study haha. The problem is cats and dogs can carry a lot more weight than pigeons. I wonder if there are lighter keychain ones available now…
Falconers also use custom-made for falconry tracking devices in case they lose their birds, but I assume they’re pretty pricey.
Are there any mailing lists for MOTUS or ICARUS, so you can stay updated on developments in wildlife tracking?
I explored both websites, but I didn’t see any mailing list sign-up links. I guess you can email the PIs and request to be added, but I thought I would ask here as well, in case I’m missing something.
Same: 20 km (12 miles).
There are a lot of websites with information on Motus.
A few years ago, I was asked to help a student use ICARUS tags with American Robins, here in the eastern US. The tags they sent (they are made/come from Germany) were 3.8 grams. I am authorized to use a tag up to 5% of a birds’ weight. One has to factor in the annual cycle (and subsequent weight gains/losses). We have such data but another factor is that there are many subspecies of Am Robin and their body weights vary a lot - and we can find a handful of subspecies in North Carolina in the fall / winter. So we had some things to consider.
But, it did not work out in the end. Once the units arrived in the US, they would not communicate with the satellites. The ICARUS tags were affiliated with Russian satellites.
The student sent them back and they were re-engineered. But when they were sent back, they were now 4.2g. I said I would not place these on any Robins as this was over the limit for too many birds. I didn’t have a lot of time to be catching a lot of birds, and weighing/assessing.
So they told me to try anything I could. I got permission to try on Common Grackle. It was now the fall of 2019 and I needed to wait 4 months or so. Finally, on this one Monday in March, I had a lot of grackles in my yard and I told my colleagues “We will do this on Friday”. But on WED I received a text: DO NOT DEPLOY THE TAGS… when I inquired, I was told that due to the war in Ukraine, which was fairly new still, the Russians had turned off ICARUS access to the satellites.
The device in the original photo here, on the kite, looks like an ICARUS tag. If that bird is transmitting, they either found a new satellite or, it’s not ICARUS. On my end, I have a few nice, new, shiny devices to show people when doing public programs.
Related is the Movebank site where one can see a lot of data/maps posted, showing animal movements (gathered by any means) around the world. www.movebank.org
Look up MOTUS … for the second winter running I have one of the MOTUS towers set up in my garden.
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