Turtles to Wear Custom-Designed GPS Tracking Backpacks
13 Sep 2012GPS tracking devices have been used worldwide in wildlife research. We report about it quite often here at the LiveViewGPS blog, and today’s post continues in that endeavor.
13 turtles living on Australia’s Murray River will be wearing more than their hard turtle shell. They’ll be sporting “GPS tracking backpacks”.
On Murray River, which is east of Echuca, Australia, researchers are making it their mission to learn more about where turtles go and what they do when they leave the water for dry land. In a project by the Yorta Yorta people in Australia, the pending drought is a great worry. Using a global positioning system (GPS) transmitter attached to the shell of freshwater turtles, scientists are able to review the data and better research turtle whereabouts on land.
Recently, researchers began tracking freshwater turtles like the broad-shelled turtle and the long-necked turtle. Once the GPS tracking transmitter is placed on the turtle’s hard shell, it will begin tracking the reptile’s location and movement, giving researchers a good idea of where the turtle goes out of water, how long they stay in each location, and where they find nest and shelter.
Currently, 13 transmitters are attached to female turtles, which will remain through November. Scientists from the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s Arthur Rylah Institute are monitoring turtle movement and location, and viewing the tracking date.
This is the first time GPS tracking devices have been used on turtles in Australia, and researchers are hoping to identify and protect the freshwater turtle’s habitats and nesting locations on land. This is especially important for broad-shelled turtles as they are at a higher risk. Broad-shelled turtles tend to nest further away from water and not in groups as other freshwater turtles, therefore their nests need to be protected. For this reason, nine out of 13 turtles with the GPS transmitters are broad-shelled turtles.
GPS tracking devices used for Australian freshwater turtles are designed by U.S. manufacturers and custom-made for the turtles of this area. They are carefully designed to record the turtle’s location information once they leave the water for dry land. Researchers are not as concerned about their water movement as they are about what the turtles are doing or where they are going on dry land.
Since turtles mostly come to land for breeding or to lay eggs, it is vital that their location and movements are better understood by scientists to protect them and keep them reproducing. The results are going to be used for nest protection programs and viewed by indigenous rangers.
According to Katie Howard, an ecologist in Australia, “We have a ‘freshwater switch’ on it, which means that when the turtle surfaces it allows the GPS to try to the satellites.”
Scientists also plan to monitor a larger variety of turtles along Murray River in the future.
With the help of advanced GPS technology, researchers hope to protect their beloved freshwater turtles.
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