PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 162: Landscape Ecology: Management; Vegetation Dynamics
Friday, August 12, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 520 A, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Using Automated Radio Telemetry to Monitor Wildlife Activity.
Walde, Andrew*,1, Delaney, David2, Pater, Larry2, Quillman, Mickey3, 1 ITS Corporation, Barstow, California, USA2 U.S. Army - CERL, Champaign, Illinois, USA3 U.S. Army, Directorate of Public Works, Ft. Irwin, California, USA
ABSTRACT- Automated radio telemetry equipment is currently being used to study the activity patterns of desert tortoises at the National Training Center on Fort Irwin. This equipment can enable one person to monitor and document the activity of many animals continuously over an extended time, regardless of weather, light level or terrain. The basic approach is to record and analyze the radio signal received from a radio transmitter mounted on the study animal. Because of the directivity pattern of the transmitting antenna and the fact that variations in its juxtaposition to its surroundings change the radiated power, motion of the animal causes changes in the received signal. A recording of the temporal variation of the received signal contains considerable information about the movement of the animal. Interpretation of these signals is amenable to automated analysis by computer algorithms. Automated data analysis computer algorithms classify signals as active or inactive, based on moving averages of changing signal amplitude. Data from radio transmittered tortoises are being transferred real-time by radio signal to a web accessible relational database. Data storage is accomplished though a central database capable of storing all data collected and capable of being served on the web. Activity data, in conjunction with meteorological data, are being recorded to provide detailed temporal information on when tortoises are active above and below ground on a yearly basis. Data from this research project should benefit the recovery and management of desert tortoise populations through refinements in a number of research areas, e.g., temperature-based tortoise handling guidelines, line distance sampling, baseline activity patterns, and translocation.
Key words: activity, radio telemetry, automated, desert tortoise