Rare eagle sneaks into Iran and drains Siberian ornithologists’ funds by spamming costly text messages

25 Oct, 2019 08:13 / Updated 12 days ago

A Russian bird conservation group has discovered a sudden hole in their budget after one of the eagles they were tracking started bombarding them with hundreds of expensive text messages from Iran.

Roaming is one big headache when you travel a lot, and raptors can get burned by it just as easily as the bipeds that created mobile phones. Just ask the Russian Raptor Research and Conservation Network (RRRCN), an environmental group whose eagle tracking budget was surprisingly drained by one particularly sneaky bird of prey.

The network studies the migration routes of various birds, including the endangered steppe eagle. They do so by putting solar-powered GPS trackers on their subjects. The device records the coordinates of the birds and dumps the data via text messages through a regular mobile network when it’s available. The conservationists then check the routes against potential threats like high-voltage power lines or poison baits deployed for pest control and try to find ways to avoid them.

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As 'they risk becoming memory', GPS technology is being used to help save the curlew

ONE OF Scotland’s most threatened birds, the curlew, has been tracked for the first time using GPS in an effort to save the species. The waders were fitted with GPS trackers in southern Scotland as part of a groundbreaking pilot study to see where they go during their crucial breeding season.

By DAVID SCOTT

PUBLISHED: 00:00, Mon, Feb 19, 2018

GPS trackers are being used to protect curlews

The RSPB study found adults will travel up to two kilometres to favoured foraging spots, while their partner incubates eggs on the nest, but while rearing young chicks, they stay within 300m to protect them.

The discovery – which highlights the importance of maintaining diverse habitats for curlews to nest and forage on a landscape scale – could be used to help design conservation measures to save the species.

Dr Steven Ewing, senior conservation scientist at RSPB’s Centre for Conservation Science, said yesterday: “Curlews are instantly recognisable to all, but like other species before it, they risk becoming just another memory lost to future generations.

“Developing effective conservation strategies demands a good understanding of the species’ needs, as the lack of one important requirement could limit the effectiveness of conservation efforts.

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Prairie chicken tracked on 1,165-mile journey in Missouri and Iowa

A female prairie chicken wearing a GPS tracking collar surprised and puzzled biologists this summer by traveling 1,165 miles in big circles in southern Iowa and northern Missouri. The hen, labeled Bird No. 112, was trapped in western Nebraska and released on April 4 near the Missouri border, north of Bethany, for a prairie chicken restoration project. Since then, she has avoided fatal dangers such as predators, vehicles, fences and utility lines in a ceaseless journey which has slowed but not stopped.

http://cedarrepublican.com/news/prairie-chicken-tracked-on--mile-journey-in-missouri-and/article_2b22bf12-04f7-11e3-884b-001a4bcf887a.html

‘Ospreys ideal bird for GPS tracking of migration’

By SHARON UDASIN

02/04/2013 18:10

Int’l experts convene to discuss migration technology collaborations, educational opportunities.

With similar flight habits in their migratory paths all over the world, the osprey is the ideal bird for GPS tracking on a collaborative level, international experts agreed during a birding tour on Sunday.

Birding educators and professionals spoke to The Jerusalem Post during a field day in the Hula Valley and the Kinneret region that day, in preparation for a weeklong conference about monitoring osprey migration and using that the GPS satellite technology involved for streamlined, educational and conservation purposes.

On the Israeli side, the Kfar Blum conference was organized by Dr. Yossi Leshem, a senior researcher in Tel Aviv University’s zoology department, who has also worked for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). He currently serves as the founder and director of SPNI’s International Center for the Study of Bird Migration in Latrun. Also on the organizing team was Tim Mackrill, senior reserve officer at Rutland Osprey Project at the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, who is also working on a PhD about ospreys.

“[Ospreys are] such an iconic species,” said Dr. Rob Bierregaard, an osprey expert who has been geo-tagging the birds in the United States since 2000.

“They’re the flagship bird of the coastal ecosystem,” he added.

Read on:  http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=302090