Wearable Wildlife Tech

In this weeks MOOC module; “How do we explore the oceans?”, we have covered some of the technological advances that have enabled us to map the ocean and the life in it. These devices are getting smaller and more advanced, allowing us to uncover aspects of the natural world that we never thought possible. Technological miniaturisation has even seen the emergence of the wearable technology sector this year and it seems that every company is trying to attach their new smart-watch-phone-camera-things to our wrists. Although new in the consumer sector, scientists have actually been using wearable tech’ for some time now. Here’s my run-down of the latest must-have fashion for tracking animals in the marine world.

OCEARCH have attached satellite tags to a number of the oceans apex predators in order to understand movement patterns. Image: OCEARCH

One of the most popular must-have items this year for any spatial ecologist goes under the street name of “Tags”. Tags cover a wide array of devices that allow scientists, and now even the public, to track the movements of an animal in space and time. Knowledge of animal space use is fundamental in establishing conservation and management policies….especially when animals under-go large-scale migrations.

A mako shark wearing a satellite tag attached by Guy Harvey Research Institute. Image: Scott Tindake — A mako shark wearing a satellite tag attached by the Guy Harvey Research Institute. Image: Scott Tindake

Acoustic Tags

Transmit coded sounds that are typically detected by an array of transceivers or listening stations. They can either be worn externally or surgically implanted into the animal.

Hammerhead shark with acoustic tag next to receiver "listening" station. Image: Fred Buyle via Sharks 4 Kids — Hammerhead shark with acoustic tag next to receiver “listening” station. Image: Fred Buyle via Sharks 4 Kids

Accelerometer Tags

Record the 3-dimensional movements and orientation of an animal as it goes about its daily business. Scientists are then able to construct fine scale movement tracks of those animals, which enable studies on aspects such as energetics.

PAT or PSAT Tags

PSAT stands for ‘pop-up satellite archival tag’ and it pretty much does exactly what it says on the tin. The tag is attached externally to an animal and will store data such as depth, temperature, sunrise and sunset. Then, at a predetermined date, the tag will pop-off, float to the surface and relay its archived information back to satellites. Using the time of sunrise and sunset and depth, scientists are able to estimate its location (Light based geolocation).

Pop-up Sat' Tag attached to swordfish. Image: Desert Star System — Pop-up Sat’ Tag attached to swordfish. Image: Desert Star System

SPOT/SAT tags

‘Smart position only tags’ (SPOT) or satellite tags make use of the Argos satellite system and the scientific principle of Doppler shift to accurately geo-locate the tag. These tags must be able to “see” the satellites, so are only suitable for animals that spend a lot of time on the surface.

Green turtle sporting a satellite tracking tag. Image TCS

GPS (Global Positioning System)

Using a system similar to the ones you find in your smart-phones and satnavs, these tags are able to geo-locate the animal depending on the position and orientation of numerous satellites orbiting the earth. Like the SPOT tags, they are only suitable for animals that spend a lot of time on the surface.

Juvenile Elephant seal with GPS tag. Image: Marine Desprez

Crittercams

Developed by National Geographic, this light weight camera is attached to the animal and records live footage as well as temperature, depth and acceleration. Crittercams have enabled scientists to directly witness specific behaviours and interactions in the real world.

Emperor penguin outfitted with a crittercam allows a first person perspective. Image: Crittercam

Sharkcam

The latest in must have autonomous animal tracking; this autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) will follow any animal with a transmitter tag on it. Collecting a wide range of data as it follows its target, this surely is the must have gadget for this year. The video below is of it tracking a white shark in 2013; that is until the AUV then becomes the one that is being followed.

This wearable tech’ is allowing scientists to uncover previously unknown movements of many marine animals. You too can even log on to various websites and follow animals yourself.

Follow sharks with OCEARCH: http://www.ocearch.org/

Follow sharks, turtles, birds, sea lions and many more at: http://www.seaturtle.org.uk/tracking/

Guy Harvey marine life tracking: http://www.nova.edu/ocean/ghri/tracking/

Combined map shows movement patterns of twenty-two species documented by scientists collaborating in the TOPP (Tagging of Pacific Ocean Predators) project.

Tags are attached with minimal effect to the animal, because after all, we want to observe natural movements. There are strict weight restrictions that need to been adhered to in order not to impede animal movement. Many of these tags will errode off the animal over time or are manually removed by scientists at the end of the study period. The animals’ welfare is the number one priority to research scientist working with animal movements.

Knowledge of animal movement patterns is fundamental for the effective implementation of conservation and management practices. How are we supposed to protect an animal if we don’t know the extent of its movements? Tags are designed and attached in order to be as “neutral” as possible on the animal with ethics and welfare being a main priority. The culmination of technology, engineering, mathematics and biology has revealed great insights into the secret lives of marine animals. This is the wearable tech’ that really matters. Yeah, ok…it may not look the most attractive, but the results they produce have huge implications for the way that we perceive and subsequently try to protect the animals that wear them.

What are your thoughts? I would love to hear them and would invite you to join the discussions below.

Christopher Bird (@SharkDevocean)

8 Responses to "Wearable Wildlife Tech"

Mark Hutchinson says:

March 8, 2018 at 9:57 am

Awesome work! all beautiful pics but especially i like shark and seal. Great post and great awareness action. Thanks!!

Reply
Pamela roskilly says:

December 11, 2014 at 1:40 pm

Elephants in African reserves have GPS trackers unfortunately these are usually retrieved when the animal has been killed by poachers. We dont know enough and the work you are to doing to increase our knowledge is great but if poachers in Africa can track an elephant how safe are the large sea animals. I accept we need information but how safe is the information collected.?

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Ian says:

December 1, 2014 at 11:25 pm

Realy like this , have seen the remus shark cam before amazing the damage done by the shark to the remus cam.

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Yvonne Chamberlain says:

November 30, 2014 at 2:30 pm

What a wonderful blog..thank you so much. Have printed it to read again at leisure!

Reply
Sheila Laurens says:

November 30, 2014 at 8:57 am

Yes I agree that it is very necessary but the GPS on the seal’s head looks horrendous and the crittercam on the emperor penguin’s back looks very uncomfortable for him. Do they fall off fairly quickly? Do the scientists remove these? How many cams, tags, etc are lost? Is this a costly excercise in terms of equipment loss?
A fascinating article Christopher, loved the shark cam – those teeth!!

Reply
1. Christopher says:
  
  November 30, 2014 at 12:27 pm
  
  Hi Sheila
  
  The tags on the seals head are attached with non-reactive glue that causes no pain or discomfort for the seal. Because these seals usually move around a common “nesting” beach it is easy to retrieve the tags from the seals when they return to land and also remove the glue. We also know that the tags have a minimal effect on the seal as they behave the same as untagged seals. I am unsure on the critter cam but I know they are very light weight. The critter cam only has a small deployment time (a few hours) before it is removed.Again it is not uncomfortable as attachment of the cam is via soft strapping. The footage retrieved from the cameras would also suggest no deleterious effects to movement as they can be seen swimming with other penguins and foraging as usual.
  
  Cameras can remain attached from anywhere between a few hours to a few years depending on the animal and the tag. There are some satellite tags that have been attached to tiger and white sharks for over 2 years. The bolts that are used to attach tags to fin fish will corrode in seawater after a certain time.
  
  Tags sometimes fail and that is just a risk. As these tags have become more advanced, this now happens less often. Tags typically fail due to salt-water-switch failing, tether erosion and biofouling, all of which can be accounted for in newer designs. Some of the tags can cost £1000’s, but knowing the extent of animal migrations is fundamental for conservation and management efforts.
  
  It may seem obtrusive to the animals to do such study, but that is why I wanted to write a piece on this, hoping it work spark discussions just like this. The scientists working on these animals are usually some of the most passionate. I know in my experience in tagging sharks, the health of the sharks is always the most important thing. If an animal ever looks distressed or in danger, the science is aborted and the animal is released. Without these sorts of studies, it would be impossible to protect them.
  
  Reply
  1. Sheila Laurens says:
    
    December 1, 2014 at 1:56 am
    
    Thank you Christopher, for your very concise and further enlightening reply. I didn’t realise that the crittercam was not actually left on the Emperor Penguin. I had thought that it would have trouble diving through holes in the ice if it were left for a while. I did think that there must be a high cost involved but as you said, it is well worth it to enable us to see how, what, why and when!!
    As I said previously.. “A fascinating article” and now more so with your addition comments.
    Many thanks
    
    Reply
2. Heather Evans says:
  
  December 1, 2014 at 1:41 pm
  
  I found the tag on the juvenile elephant seal excessively large and intrusive to the animal. The crittercam on the penguin might give much valuable data that could help injured or threatened animals in the future but the camera and webbing is so large I can’t believe it doesn’t interfere with the penguin’s normal movements under water no matter how ergonomically designed. The shark tracker tube caused a concern – would the shark be aware that it was being stalked by a large object? The pop off tags I thought are a brilliant concept, but would there be anything left on the animal? Not sure how these are attached.
  
  Reply

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