Joshua Tree National Park (JOTR) has been monitoring their desert tortoise population’s telemetry since 2005 using transmitters attached to as many as 18 tortoises. JOTR needed to visualize tortoise telemetry data and temporal environmental datasets to see what factors may be affecting the movements of the tortoises. JOTR also needed to look at the telemetry data in relation to roads to see if curbing implementations have been effective. The foundation for this project is ArcMap™. This project includes various tools written in Python within ArcMap’s toolboxes that allow for automated data manipulation and analysis of the various datasets. These tools prepare the datasets for dynamic visualizations of the data in Google Earth®. Additionally, the preparation of the data will also enable it to be exploited by ArcGIS 10’s integrated time-visualization capability. ArcGIS Explorer™ can also be used to perform similar dynamic visualizations as Google Earth. The provided tools and visualizations aim to provide JOTR with a means to help analyze and monitor their tortoise population to improve their survivability
