NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR MOOSE MANAGEMENT: A WORKSHOP

This paper provides outlines of presentations made during a special session devoted to new technology for moose management at the 4th International Moose Symposium and 33rd North American Moose Conference and Workshop, Fairbanks, Alaska, May 17-23, 1997. The intent of this session was to provide an overview of emergent technology that may benefit moose management and to suggest future directions for research. Advancements in the use of Global Positioning System technology for tracking moose and other wildlife were outlined. The performance of these new systems under both controlled and field situations were discussed. Recent progress in the application of ultrasonography to the assessment of moose nutritional and reproductive condition was presented. Prospects for the application of new genetic techniques, particularly molecular genetic markers, to the understanding and management of most populations were considered. A new spatially based decision support tool for landscape level resource management was outlined and demonstrated. This special session highlighted the wide variety of new technologies that may have significant impacts on moose management in the near future and into the 21st century

Global positioning system and associated technologies in animal behaviour and ecological research

Biologists can equip animals with global positioning system (GPS) technology to obtain accurate (less than or equal to 30 m) locations that can be combined with sensor data to study animal behaviour and ecology. We provide the background of GPS techniques that have been used to gather data for wildlife studies. We review how GPS has been integrated into functional systems with data storage, data transfer, power supplies, packaging and sensor technologies to collect temperature, activity, proximity and mortality data from terrestrial species and birds. GPS ‘rapid fixing’ technologies combined with sensors provide location, dive frequency and duration profiles, and underwater acoustic information for the study of marine species. We examine how these rapid fixing technologies may be applied to terrestrial and avian applications. We discuss positional data quality and the capability for high-frequency sampling associated with GPS locations. We present alternatives for storing and retrieving data by using dataloggers (biologging), radio-frequency download systems (e.g. very high frequency, spread spectrum), integration of GPS with other satellite systems (e.g. Argos, Globalstar) and potential new data recovery technologies (e.g. network nodes). GPS is one component among many rapidly evolving technologies. Therefore, we recommend that users and suppliers interact to ensure the availability of appropriate equipment to meet animal research objectives