Get ready to find out when and where those wild wolves wander! Terms and Concepts How large do you think a wolf territory is? And do they use the same area of land all year around? Do they travel more in some seasons than in other seasons? These are the types of questions that wildlife biologists try to answer, and you can discover the answers, too, by analyzing the tracking data from real wild wolves! This science fair project will show you how to access, map, and analyze GPS tracking data from grey wolves in the Northeastern Alberta's Athabasca Oil Sands Region. Each wolf pack has a specific territory (area of land) in which it hunts for food, raises its pups, and that it defends from other wolf packs. These wolves will stay around for a couple of years before dispersing (leaving the pack) to find their own mates and start their own packs. Often, the non-breeding wolves in a pack are older offspring of the dominant pair. The other wolves in the pack help feed and raise the wolf pups, but do not have any pups of their own. ![]() They mate and birth a litter of pups every year. Two of the wolves, a male and female pair who are unrelated, are the dominant wolves. These packs usually consist of a group of 5–9 wolves. From years of observation, biologists know that gray wolves live in packs. Using radio telemetry and GPS tagging to find and follow specific animals has helped wildlife biologists learn many things about the gray wolves, including where the wolves travel, what they eat, how much they move around, when they rest, how many wolves live together, and how often they come in contact with humans. In this science fair project, you'll use real radio telemetry data to track the movements of packs of wild wolves, like the gray wolf shown here. Thus, such sensors cannot be used for animals that live in the ocean.įigure 1. One disadvantage of GPS tags is that they need to be in air to be able to communicate with satellites. Most smart phones are equipped with similar GPS technology, which the device can use for navigation purposes. The GPS receives signals from multiple orbiting satellites to determine a location. These tags have their own global positioning system (GPS) inside the tag. ![]() Other transmitting tags that are frequently used in animal tracking are GPS tags. This system of using radio transmitters and receivers to track the movements of wildlife is called radio telemetry. Similarly, the radio collar of each wolf broadcasts a unique frequency and the biologists use antennas and receivers to tune in to those frequencies and use the strength of the signal to pinpoint the wolf's location. If you want to listen to a different radio station, you change the receiver's (in this case your radio) settings to tune in to another frequency. When you want to listen to a particular radio station, you tune in to the broadcast signal using a radio, which is actually a type of receiver. This is similar to how different radio stations each broadcast on a different radio wave frequency. ![]() Each collar has a transmitter, which sends out a unique frequency. While the wolves sleep, they are fitted with radio collars. When catching wolves, the biologists give them a type of anesthetic that causes them to fall asleep for a certain period of time. Anesthetic drugs have varying effects, such as loss of sensation or loss of consciousness (sleep). Once caught, the wolves are anesthetized. Geological Survey use safe, humane traps to catch wild wolves. Now imagine putting a collar on a wild wolf! As challenging and difficult as that task sounds, for some people, it's a routine part of their jobs.Įvery summer, the wildlife biologists who work for the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Have you ever put a collar on a dog? Depending on the dog, it can be tricky to get the animal to stay still while you buckle the collar in place.
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