Bob Furness Tracking and tagging animals (seabirds) Reasons to tag - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Bob Furness Tracking and tagging animals (seabirds)

Reasons to tag animals • Individual identification (e.g. colour rings) • Movement studies (e.g. ringing, transmitters) • Survival analysis (e.g. from ring data or tags) • Behavioural analysis (e.g. activity budgets) • Impact assessment (e.g. offshore wind farms) • To understand pollutant accumulation • To assess foraging habitat use • As one layer in a GIS (overlay with habitat etc)

Tag types • [Radio transmitters] • Geolocators (light, temperature, activity) • Argos satellite PTTs • GPS storage tags + base station (Amsterdam) • GPS-GSM tags • Altimeter tags • Time-depth recorders (TDRs) • Accelerometer tags (activity) • ‘Critter - cams’; Heart -rate monitors; stomach temperature loggers • Review of tags and tagging literature available

Animal welfare and data quality issues • Tagging is regulated (highly regulated in UK); • Tagging and tags DO affect animals (e.g. corticosterone higher in tagged birds); • Phillips’ 3% rule does not justify lack of assessment of tag effects; • Harnesses and surgical implanting may or may not be acceptable depending on study species and researcher; • Studies should design in an assessment of tag impacts – but most don’t

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Basking shark tracking to identify key habitat to include In MPA Witt et al. 2016 SNH CR No 908

Basking shark tracking : Long-distance movements tracked using Argos

Gannet foraging ranges Wakefield et al . 2013. Space partitioning without territoriality in gannets. Science, 341, 68-70. Satellite-tracked breeding adult gannets from twelve colonies foraged in largely mutually non-overlapping exclusive areas, apparently determined by density-dependent competition (somehow).

Leat et al. 2013. Influence of wintering area on persistent organic pollutants in a breeding migratory seabird. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 491, 277-293. Kernel density distribution for winter ranges of breeding adult great skuas from Bear Island, Iceland and Shetland colonies identified from geolocator deployments. The logger data allowed C & N isotopes in feathers to be used to identify wintering areas . Organochlorine pollutant burdens In birds caught at nests differed according to wintering areas .

Gannet geolocator location estimates using light data only Two locations per day; Months in different colours Individual estimates are +/- about 100 km

Gannet geolocator location estimates using light data plus sea surface temperature satellite data and logger temperature at night Two locations per day; Months in different colours Garthe et al. 2016 Marine Biology Use of SST seems to greatly improve location estimates

Raptor tagging • Satellite tags show Scottish golden eagles tend to ‘disappear’ in a small number of discrete areas • Whitfield & Fielding 2017. Analyses of the fates of satellite tracked golden eagles in Scotland. SNH CR No. 982.

Discussion theme Opportunities to combine other technological approaches (e.g. earth observation data sets, stable isotopes, genetic markers, pollutant loads, hormone levels, thermal imaging), with tracking of individuals to gain better understanding of animal ecology based on studies of individuals bob.furness@snh.gov.uk bob.furness@glasgow.ac.uk bob.furness@macarthurgreen.com