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During WW2 the military noticed that flocks of birds were being picked up on their radar scanners. Since then Radar has been vital for tracking migrating bird species
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In the 1950s the first studies featuring radio tracking t monitor wildlife begin too apere.
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Wain Warner and William Cochran propose using satellites to track albatrose
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The first animal was a possum who was fitted with a radio tracking devise, which was about the size of a pen-light and weighed 80 grams, quite the load for a possum. The possum was released in the Orongrongo valley near Wellington.
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Monique the space elk was equipped with a satellite collar by John and Frank Craighead
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The Argos satellite was originally launched to monitor weather patterns, but nowadays it is more commonly used for animal tracking
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The first time the Argos satellite was used to track animals was in 1979 where it was used to track polar bears using collars.
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These tags unlike satellite and radio tracking methods arn't always active. These tags act as a barcode and react to a certain frequency, gives the scientist a unique number which they can use too identify the animal. This has been used on several species of fish, invertebrate and amphibiens.
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In 1982 scientists first created a satellite tracker for a fish, in this case the tracker was rather large and bulky so tehy selected a large basking shark to be the critical creature.
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In 1985 Dr. Michael Stüwe a scientist at the Smithsonian, was an early creator of software capable of analyzing the data brought forth by the radio and satellite tracking technology
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In 1987 Smithsonian scientists conducted the first study on arthropod molting. Which is basically just when crabs molt. They did this using Ultra sonic telemetry.
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In 1989 the albatross was the first bird to be tracked using satellites. This information revolutionized the way people thought about migratory birds and the lengths they would go too feed there young. Since this study there have been hundreds of similar migratory studies.
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in the 90s pop-up satellite archival tags were created, these tags were implanted into marine animals to track there, movements, mating and feeding patterns.
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In 2017 the Smithsonian partnered with a medical company to see how different environmental stresses effect different animals, they are currently testing it on Maned wolves.
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In 2021 Dr Graeme Woodward University of Canterbury researcher worked with forest entomologist Dr Steve Pawson to create a new type of radio tracking that could be used for insects. This tracking was revolutionary and is much better for teh insects themselves