
One wolf's migration across Europe - lelf
http://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2014/aug/08/slavc-wolf-migration-europe
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miahi
This reminds me of an anecdote from a local (European) telco:

A customer called the customer support line because their monthly invoice was
way higher than in the previous months. They had 3G data access modems/SIMs
and a fairly standard contract. The CSR searched their record and found that
they had a lot of roaming data fees (really expensive if you don't have a
special contract). The customer then replied "I see. Well, we use these data
SIMs in special collars to monitor some bears... One of them went abroad."

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aptwebapps
There's an advertisement in here waiting to happen.

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mschuster91
I would like to know how they kept the battery alive for over a year with all
that power-hungry stuff in there...

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reubenmorais
The collar sends its location every 3 hours = 7 times per day = 2555 times
over a year, for a couple of seconds each time. If on average each wake up
lasts 5 seconds, that's only 3.5 hours over the year, so definitely within the
range of commercial batteries.

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cloudwalking
5 seconds is fast to acquire a GPS fix...

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miahi
With a cold start - yes. But most GPS chips have memory backup for short-term
almanac data (valid for up to 4 hours, works if the GPS doesn't move long
distances in that time period) and internal clocks, so it can perform a warm
start. This takes only a few micro Amps standby current, so it's not hard on
the battery.

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PhantomGremlin
We've seen similar migratory behavior from wolves in the USA. Here's an Oregon
wolf that has gone over 1000 miles:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OR-7](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OR-7)

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mprovost
It's a different species, cougars, but this is an interesting story of one
that was killed by a car in Connecticut, and which was identified as having
come from South Dakota, 1,800 miles away.

[http://griffinsguide.com/content/2014/01/06/cougar-makes-
an-...](http://griffinsguide.com/content/2014/01/06/cougar-makes-an-
incredible-journey/)

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keehun
It seems Slavc was the only one of its kind from these scientists that
survived the long migration.

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Kiro
Is SMS usually the way you send data from tracking devices?

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maxerickson
I tracked down the manufacturer in another comment. Their devices can
communicate with UHF/VHF radios, GSM and a couple of different satellite
systems, Globalstar and Iridium.

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stplsd
Wolfs community is very concerned about this. There is initiative from senior
members to held conference about fighting for wolfs right to privacy.

