If you've ever looked at those V-shaped flocks of geese and wondered where they're going and what they're seeing along the way, a newly launched satellite can pinpoint their course.
After a three-year hiatus due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, the International Collaboration for Animal Research Using Space (ICARUS) project, which aims to track wildlife from space, was relaunched on November 28 aboard the spacecraft. SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
The system, which involves researchers from around the world, uses tiny transmitters placed on animals including birds, zebras, sea turtles and even insects to track their interactions with each other and their environment.
The project was coined in 2002 by Martin Wikelski, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, as the “Internet of Animals.” There are currently hundreds of thousands of tags on animals. Ground-based receivers receive this information and transmit it to researchers who are already published hundreds of scientific studies as a result.
But having a receiver on the satellite means they can collect data from areas inaccessible to ground-based receivers, such as mountaintops, deep in the jungle or in the far north.
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The first space-based receiver was turned on in 2020 as an experimental antenna attached to the outside of the Russian segment of the International Space Station. During trial runs, ICARUS proved its effectiveness: tracking the movements of hundreds of animals of 15 species worldwide, such as the common cuckoo. But it was closed in 2022 after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, and cooperation was immediately stopped.
“The first data from Icarus suggests that with increased effort, a global network of animal observers is possible,” Wikelski said at the time. in a press release.
Since then, efforts on the ground have improved the technology, reducing the size of the receiver to 10 centimeters, using one-tenth the power, making it more sensitive and capable of tracking more animals at once. It was recently included in a small CubeSat satellite, and on November 28 it was launched into space along with many other CubeSats from other countries.
Data can track environmental problems faced by wild animals
The researchers also worked on reduce the number of transmitters which go to the animals themselves. After years of improvements, the latest versions weigh just four grams and can be attached to animals as small as songbirds. They say the next generation will be small enough to eat insects.
The devices transmit GPS location data as well as information about animal behavior and health. They can record environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and air pressure. This means the data will include not only the movements of the animals themselves, but also the conditions they encounter on the ground and, crucially, how they all interact with each other.
The combined information from thousands of animals can also be used to track changing environmental conditions, such as tree growth, ocean currents or melting glaciers. We even got used to it track earthquakes in remote areas.
All this data is transmitted from the satellite to Movebankglobal database of animal movements.
And this information is available to other researchers for free, so they can all see the various interactions in the game.
“That's why it's called the Internet of Animals. We want to connect all the researchers with all their animals together, because there's a lot more to sensor interactions than just adding them up,” Wikelski said. in an interview with Quirks & Quarks earlier this year. “We can find out what they know about the planet and protect them.”
The recent launch is just the first of many satellites the team hopes to deploy. By 2027 ICARUS plans include six satellites providing global, real-time coverage.
Such information is important because migration routes have existed for thousands of years, and possibly longer. Meanwhile, we are turning natural landscapes into urban landscapes that can block these pathways.
For example, many migratory waterfowl such as geese, ducks and swans require aquatic resting places such as marshes, ponds or lakes to roost during their long journeys south. If people “drain the swamp” to build housing developments, the birds will have nowhere to land or will have to fly further to find shelter. This consumes more energy needed to complete the trip.
In addition to migrations, the animals will also be tracked across their home ranges to see how they interact with human settlements or natural landscapes.
However, ICARUS scientists are not only interested in technical data from the satellite. They will also rely on citizen scientists through their animal tracking app. Birders and nature watchers can use their smartphones to take photos, describe what the animals are doing, whether they're resting or eating, and send that data directly to Movebank, becoming part of a scientific study.
We humans regularly board planes that fly along certain routes and travel around the world. Animals instinctively have certain corridors along which they fly or walk, which also span the entire globe. Knowing about these natural pathways can help us better tailor land development to keep these corridors open.
