Tagging in the Wild: Where are the walruses migrating?
A BBC science/nature article discusses how walruses are being tagged using satellite devices in order to learn about their migration patterns. Rebecca Morelle, the science reporter posted a log about her time spent with the researchers as they searched for walruses to tag. There are also photos.
Until now, the Arctic animals’ migration route and destination have remained a mystery to researchers.
A Danish-Greenlandic team had to spend five days off the west Greenland coast in harsh conditions to tag the mammals.
They also hope the devices will shed light on how hunting, oil exploration and climate change affect walruses.
The tags were deployed over a period of two days by the expedition’s field leader Mikkel Villum Jensen.
The satellite data gathered by the Danish researchers will be shared with BBC news so that it can be posted on their website.
- The researchers set out on a boat from the Arctic port of Sisimiut on Greenland
- During two weeks at sea, the researchers hope to attach 10 satellite tags to walruses
- Data will appear on this map, linked to from our stories, showing the animals’ day-to-day progress during the two-month project
- The tags will be fired into the walruses’ 2-4cm (0.8-1.3in) thick hide using a crossbow or CO2-powered gun
- Each time the tagged creatures emerge from the water, a signal will be beamed up to a satellite, allowing the animals’ coordinates to be determined
- After about two months, the tags will fall out as the walruses’ hides heal
Relevance: An example about how ubicomp technology is being used to unlock some of the mysteries of life. I had recently read about how the mystery regarding the construction of the pyramids may have been solved using 3-D computer animation.