BANGALORE, INDIA: Since a long long time the secretive animals have been studied by man, making use of many a technique. Of course, in the beginning it was the use of the basic natural history that helped them study animals. People would watch them, follow their tracks, making interpretations etc. Those were the days of the co-existence for man and animal.

Then man began using weapons ranging from the primitive ones to guns to kill, which also became part of their studying the animals from close quarters. But all that has changed ever since the advent of Radio telemetry in USA during 1960's. And over a period of time technology has turned to be an extremely important tool in animal research.

Today, radio collars with radio transmitters can be used on almost all species ranging from elephants and king cobras in India to whales in the Atlantic Ocean. Years ago, researchers had to carry hand-held antenna towers. Today, the transmitters can be made small enough to be fitted for almost any creature, with batteries weighing as little as 200mg. And now, developing methods of using low-orbit satellites to collect the data from those radio transmitters is in progress.

But the modern scientific research goes beyond the radio signals. It helps researchers to get more precise answers to the focused questions pertaining to habitat, migration patterns among others. And these answers can be quantitative and analytical. Also, the advancement in technology has helped scientists to do research using more non-invasive means and besides make the invasive methods safer.

Global Positioning Systems
 
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are so common in everyday life; now it is hardly a surprise that the technology is also used in wildlife tracking. It has been particularly useful in monitoring marine mammals and fish species, which travel long distances and spend time underwater, making other types of tracking difficult.

Remote Cameras

The popularity of nest box cameras for backyard use had its beginnings in wildlife research. The ability to observe nesting birds without disturbance greatly enhanced knowledge of avian development. Today, cell phone cameras are use to provide the images in real time to remote observers.

Cell Phone Technology Used to Track Migration

All those cell phone towers put in place to enhance human communication are now being utilized in tracking migratory animals. The ability to follow small songbirds had been restricted by the size of the equipment the birds would need to carry. Miniaturized units are becoming very inexpensive and with the number of cell phone towers that exist worldwide there will be fewer and fewer gaps in data.

Praveen Barghav, member, National Board for Wildlife, observes that like in other fields the use of technology is increasing in wildlife conservation also. Wildlife and forest conservation form a very broad term encompassing several aspects of forest conservation, wildlife, forest management and protection. There is a need to use technology in order to minimize the impact of human and wildlife conflict so as to ensure that the persecution of wildlife is minimized and the management response to a conflict is appropriate, he feels.

Conservation scientist Dr. K. Ullas Karanth feels that today we have all modern technologies but their use is restricted as far as wildlife research in India is concerned.

Unlike in other advanced countries, in India the forests are largely under the control of government and the government system is still very conservative. No researcher in any other filed may face as many obstacles to do his work as a wildlife researcher in India, the scientist says, adding that there is urgent need to amend the old forest laws in order to promote research and use of technology.

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