|
 MONTICELLO
- Biologists at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission have taken the
concept of radio tracking to a new level, and the sky is no longer the
limit. Through the use of Global Positioning System satellites, anyone
logging on to
www.agfc.com will be able to monitor a group of
"satellite-tagged" mallards no matter where they fly on Earth.
Twenty-eight mallards were outfitted with satellite tracking units last
spring. These transmitters give daily updates on the ducks' locations
through the year. AGFC biologists are tagging another 53 mallards to
gather even more information on the birds.
Because waterfowl spend breeding and nesting seasons in Canada and the
northern United States, then travel all the way to Mexico during their
migration, many areas across North America play crucial roles in the
mallard's life cycle.
Andrew James, AGFC waterfowl program coordinator, said, "This new
technology will show us the exact areas in the breeding grounds and the
migration corridors that deserve special attention and habitat work to
improve the numbers of ducks wintering in Arkansas."
Another element to the program is the online monitoring system. Anyone
with access to the Internet can get day-to-day reports on duck locations
and movement. Once the mallards arrive in Arkansas, they don't stay in
one place very long.
"The common belief is that the ducks are all packed into the refuges and
don't move from them," James said. "But the first year of the study
showed that ducks spent just as much time on huntable lands."
Weighing just over an ounce, each transmitter allows the bird normal
movement and doesn't cause excessive stress in flight. The battery life
for the transmitters is about one year, but new transmitters are being
developed to run on solar power, greatly extending transmitter life.
It isn't illegal to kill a satellite-tagged duck, but hunters can help
biologists by mailing the transmitter back to the AGFC.
"One of last year's ducks was killed by a hunter who was kind enough to
send us the transmitter," James said. "We were able to reuse it and sent
the hunter the bird's history and a replica to put on his mounted space
duck." |
