In 120 pages to Antarctica, back to Scotland, back to the nineteenth century and back. In the middle are information boxes explaining what 'data loggers' are or what makes seabirds. Cheers! The book by zoologist and marine biologist Stefan Garth and biologist and specialist journalist Ulrike Kobitsky is worth reading for all “bird lovers”. It concerns so-called bird tracking, that is, methods developed to use rings and transmitters to learn “lifestyle secrets” from birds, the two write.
There was a time when the only thing that helped was killing, chopping, measuring and examining. But how does a living bird function in its natural environment? What train routes does he choose? Where is he resting? When does he eat? The golden age of ornithology began at the end of the 19th century when the Great Dane began to resonate scientifically. At that time they were small metal rings with numbers that are still used today. Later, larger colored rings made of plastic were added, which can also be read with binoculars or binoculars without having to hunt the bird again. Since the 1960s, transmitters have appeared that are installed or glued to birds.
How deep can an emperor penguin dive?
We read about the American marine biologist Gerald Kooyman, who was the first to succeed in attaching a device to an animal, the emperor penguin, that could measure the depths to which it dived. Since then we have known that emperor penguins can reach more than 500 metres. Data recording technology has now evolved greatly. There are light loggers, GPS loggers, and loggers that measure peristalsis, pH value and temperature in the stomach so you can tell when and even what an animal is eating – for example, whether a warm-blooded penguin is eating prey. cold. Also mentioned in the book is the high-tech project ICARUS: the research project of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Biology in Radolfzell, which studies the migration of animals around the world using specially developed transmitters. What's special: You can use the “Animal Tracker” app on your smartphone to track animal locations and upload your own notes and photos.
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