Animal Tracking
New Zealand Users
A turtle named Sylvia (click to enlarge)
Sylvia's release (click to enlarge)
Himalayan Thar
Crown Copyright: Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai (1972), Photographer: J. L. Kendrick.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) is a major New Zealand customer. They use transmitters on endangered species plus other wildlife. (Some groups of native birds may wear a transmitter whereas in the small population of kakapo, each bird wears a transmitter).
Judas goats (and Himalayan Thar) wear transmitters and are used all over the country as part of a programme to kill goats, which damage the environment our native insects, birds and reptile need to survive.Transmitters are also used on pests such as possums, ferrets, stoats and weasels. These introduced animals have proven very destructive to our native species as they compete for food, destroy habitat and eat various birds and insects. The transmitters are used to determine the home range size of a particular species in an area, how frequently DOC needs to set traps or how densely it needs to lay poison. With transmitters they can tell how many animals have died and work out what percentage of the area population this would be.
Retrieving Transmitters
A significant part of Sirtrack's work is repacking batteries in transmitters. Some animals are difficult to recapture to check or replace the battery but most are recovered. The equipment is pretty robust so generally breakage is not a problem. The transmitter is able to sense if the animal dies. Recovery of the unit will then give information on where and when the animal died.
The Future
At this stage Sirtrack is sticking with what they're doing and are concentrating on adding value to existing products.
