Martin Wikelski is working through National Geographic and "has created a suite of tiny radio transmitters and biomonitors to track the doings of some 50 different species on the move." Great Migrations is a program on National Geographic that showcases his findings. His lab has created small devices that are places on all different kinds of animals in order to record how they are behaving and communicating with each other along with their migration patterns. Wilkelski gave the example, "You could follow a Mexican freetail bat, which might be just one of a million leaving a cave. I flew in my small plane with one for seven hours the other night, maybe 1,500 feet above it all the time. I was listening to every wingbeat it was making. That's when you start to understand what they're doing."
Another area of his study is the behavior of bats in Ghana. These bats transmit tons of seeds as well as diseases throughout the country. They do both good and bad, but Wikelski felt research on their behavior would be helpful to Ghana. His team was the first to conduct research and they started last year and are now waiting for the bats to return in their annual migration.
Wikelski also cover species amongst insects such as bees and butterflies, and songbirds. National Geographic originally funded his ideas although they were pretty far out. As a result his research has made huge steps in our understanding of animal behavior, migration, and communication. To read the full interview with him, go to the following site: http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/11/great-migrations-tracing-birds.html.
Posted by: Bailey Mannix
I'd be down to watch this. I wonder how much money gets put into those projects and the requirements to join one of thsoe teams.
ReplyDelete-Peter Lucas
His continued research will definitely provide a lot of information regarding migration. Do they estimate how long it will take to analyze data for the bats in Ghana? It sounds like that project could help alleviate the frequency of the diseases they cause in humans. Hopefully progress moves quickly!
ReplyDeletePosted by Katie Kalutkiewicz
It seems like people with far out ideas always end up with some of the most beneficial and insightful findings and discoveries. What kinds of findings has he made so far? Is he only focused on flying animals or land migrating animals as well?
ReplyDeletePosted by: Sara Weaver
That's crazy that with today's technology we can actually track down the migration of small creatures like that dragonfly in the picture. I do hope there are no negative or any side effects that comes with having a device attached to these creatures (kind of like the widowbird tail experiments). Hopefully the information would help bats and people to coexist. What do you think will happen once the info is obtained?
ReplyDeletePosted by Leona Chan
Do you know whether National Geographic funds other examples of tracking animal behavior and patterns? this is very unique research and incredible that NG funds it.
ReplyDeleteahmed sandakli
I love the picture with this post, he's actually attaching a radio transmitter to a dragonfly! Incredible! This new way of gathering information about species' movements can lead to more informed ways to do conservation or protect human health.
ReplyDelete-Alex Sprague