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Podcast: BatChat
Episode:

Bat Tracking; the drones changing the way we can undertake research
Category: Science & Medicine
Duration: 00:32:19
Publish Date: 2024-01-24 06:00:00
Description:

Send us a Text Message with what batty adventures you’ve been up to this summer!

S5E52 Steve calls in to Canberra, Australia to chat with Dr Debbie Saunders.  For over 20 years Debbie has worked as an ecologist and studied the movements of small migratory birds. This includes the Swift Parrot, one of Australia’s most endangered birds.

Like many small animals, Swift Parrots could only be tracked with tiny, very high frequency (VHF) radio-tags. This meant that in order to understand their movements, researchers would have to regularly trek vast distances with handheld receivers to search for each tagged bird, one at a time. But because the Swift Parrot is a highly mobile creature, tracking them on foot was a near impossible feat.

Frustrated by the limitations of radio-tracking manually, Debbie was inspired to develop a practical solution with wide-ranging applicability. Wildlife Drones is now an award-winning start-up that is currently working with a range of people across Australia, the United States and abroad to track the movements of some of the world’s most endangered species, including bats.

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