Tracking Koalas and Cats :)

whiteoxe

Hi all,

I was just thinking of my brothers friend after the news metioned him the other night. He is Dr."forget name", but he has the coolest job. He tracks Koalas full time and has done so for years using a collar of some sort. My guess is (i will try and find out) that he walks around the bush with a reicever of some type and plots the location of the koalas he has 'tagged'. I guess he is constantly looking up in the trees to watch out for these vicious Drop Bears, if he spies one and it does not give a signal he has a way of catching and tagging it.

It had me wondering how long the collar's battery would last, what do you think are the components in such a collar ?

SRLM

This may help...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_animal_migration

whiteoxe

Thank for the link. I followed on to www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/Tracking/Animals/PorcupineCaribou.html

The Caribou have a four pound collar wich only transmits 8 hours a week and only lasts 18 months. The rule of thumb is for the tracking device to weigh not more than 4% of animals body weight. [noparse][[/noparse]in the case of a caribou 8 pounds]

So from the statement below, does the satellite 'really' calculate the location of every signal from every transmitter ?

Spacetoday said...
The satellite radio collars include a small transmitter which sends a signal to a satellite passing overhead. A computer aboard the satellite calculates the location of the caribou and sends the information to one of three ground stations.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

If you're thinking of tracking your cat this way, be sure to use a safety (i.e. breakaway) collar. Cats get into some pretty hairy places, and a collar could easily get snagged.

-Phil

whiteoxe

Hi Phil,
I was only playing with that possibility. This is a bit far fetched but I was only mucking around , the ship has sailed in regards to the problem that inspired it. My brother had a cat. Now I was not a cat person before I met this cat..... the breed escapes me just now but there are pictures on utube of the same breed doing weird stuff like exercising on a treadmill and seeming to enjoy it.
This cat was almost human I won't bore you with the details but I am a cat person now. Unfortunatley it did have a bad habit of going next door and slapping their cat about, so much that my brother was forced to give 'Rocko' away. Wish I could have put a collar on it and made it buzz or shock the cat if a GPS sensed it was in this one particular yard [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Yeah, I feel your pain. Cats are very territorial, and their fights are no laughing matter. They can do incredible damage to each other in no time flat. I have a (former, but I swear the vet must not have gotten it all) male cat ("Browser") who was the neighborhood bad boy for years. (He's nearly 15 now and has mellowed quite a bit.) He was almost always on the losing end of his fights, though, and I still keep anitbiotics in my fridge for those inevitable times that he "begs to differ". Abscesses and vet visits are just part of the game when you own a cat. They make great pets, though, and Browser does things on a daily basis that make me laugh. You really get attached to them.

I've often thought about ways to track his whereabouts. "Where do cats go?" is a perpetual question that begs answering. I remember a website where a guy hung a digicam from his cat's neck that took pictures at regular intervals. He uploaded the pictures to his website. What was interesting is that a good many of the photos featured other cats. But I'm sure it was a matter of, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

-Phil