What is Radio Telemetry

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What is Radio Telemetry?
(((((( ))))))
Radio signal emitted from a transmitter...
and picked up by receiving equipment
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When was it Developed?

• 1930s - Aerospace technology
• Initially used with balloon-borne telemetry
  equipment to transmit weather data
• 1960s - Wildlife studies
• Craighead brothers generally acknowledged as
  pioneers in wildlife tracking
• tracked grizzlies in Montana
• 1970s - Technology expanded use
• As transmitters decreased in size, use expanded
  to many smaller species

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Telemetry Used in Many Fields

• Oceanography
• Seismology
• Meteorology
• Broadcast Journalism (cell phone technology)
• Wildlife Biology

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Equipment

• Radio transmitters
• Transmission
• MHz
• Satellite/GPS
• Attachment
• External
• Internal
• Sub-cutaneous
• Receivers and Antennas

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How is Telemetry Used in Wildlife Studies?

• Tracking animals
• movement
• behavior
• physiology
• Remote sensing
• artificial nests

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Direct Tracking and Monitoring

• Movement
• migration

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Direct Tracking and Monitoring

• Behavior
• Home range (i.e., territory size), habitat
  selection, survival, reproduction
• Physiology
• Metabolic rate

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Value of Radio Telemetry

• Study organisms in the wild
• Secretive animals
• marbled murrelet, lynx, spotted owl
• Wide-ranging animals
• manatee, grizzly, peregrine

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Limitations of Radio Telemetry

• Trapping and handling
• Do animals represent the population of interest?
• Seattle crows versus those near remote
  campgrounds
• Do radio transmitters influence behavior?
• Survivorship or reproduction
• Estimating locations (e.g., location error)

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How Do You Estimate Locations (and minimize
error)?

• Direct observations

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How Do You Estimate Locations (and minimize
error)?

• Direct observations
• Triangulation

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How Do You Estimate Locations (and minimize
error)?

• Direct observations
• Triangulation
• Satellites/GPS

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A Few Research Applications

• Marbled murrelets
• Spotted owls
• Salmon
• Whales
• Peregrine
• Grizzly

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Specific Application

• Radio Telemetry Behavior
• crows, ravens, and jays
• home range
• reproduction
• survivorship

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Monitor Nests

• Artificial Nests
• Placed in canopy 50 - 150 feet
• Monitor every 2-days for disturbance

Radio Transmitter
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