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  1. #1
    Tell Dickinson
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    Not for critique, but just to show a Whooper Swan with a transmitter so that migration can be monitored. Transmitters are only put on the fittest male Whoopers who make the migration from Iceland to UK each Winter and then back to Iceland for the breeding season in Spring, if everything goes to plan the transmitter is removed after 12 months.

    The migration is about 800km nearly all of that over sea and the record is UNDER 13 hours - amazing :)

    http://whooper.wwt.org.uk/whooper

    I just thought someone may find this interesting :)

    Tell

  2. #2
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    Interesting to see Tell and thanks for posting. This one looks like a "PTT" which stands for Platform Transmitter Terminal and is a device that communicates with a series of Argos satellites to determine position on Earth. Here's an article giving more information:

    http://www.sirtrack.com/downloads/argos.pdf

    Here's a fantastic site used by biologists to post their tracking data on the web. Originally designed for sea turtle tracking, it now contains maps and tracks for many different types of animals (several of my colleagues use this site):

    http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/

    Incidentally, there are strict guidelines limiting the mass (weight) of a device attached to a bird- the limit is 5% of body mass or less. Swans are heavy birds so they can carry a relatively large device. The smallest PTT I am aware of right now is one weighing about 10 grams. This is still too big for smaller birds. The advantage of PTTs is that they provide very accurate location information.
    Last edited by John Chardine; 09-13-2009 at 03:23 PM.

  3. #3
    Axel Hildebrandt
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    Thanks for the image and links, very interesting!

  4. #4
    Tell Dickinson
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    Thanks for the links John, I have book marked them so that I can take a longer look at my leisure :)

    Tell

    PS Just for interest here are 2 more views of the swan/transmitter...


  5. #5
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    Ah, now I can see it's one of the PTTs with a solar cell which means it can carry smaller/lighter batteries.

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