New Partners to Advance Small Animal Science

CAPE MAY, N.J. - April 15, 2019 - PRLog -- CTT LifeTag (https://www.celltracktech.com/life-tag-product/) is a breakthrough in the scientific research of wildlife because it is incredibly small, lightweight, solar powered, and has no battery. The combination of these features means biologists are able to study smaller animals with potentially unlimited tracking device life. The CTT PowerTag™ is battery powered for animals that get little sun exposure.

The Motus Wildlife Tracking System (https://motus.org/about/) is an international collaborative research network that uses a coordinated automated radio telemetry array to track animals (birds, bats, and large insects). Motus uses digitally-encoded radio transmitters, safely affixed to animals, that broadcast signals several times each minute. These signals are detected by automated radio telemetry stations that scan for signals 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When results from many stations are combined, the array can track animals across a diversity of landscapes covering thousands of kilometers. Motus presently has hundreds of receivers in operation in the Americas, Europe, and in the Pacific region.

"Motus harnesses the collective resources and infrastructure of numerous researchers into one massive collaborative effort. CTT's LifeTag solves a critical scientific requirement in that it can operate for multiple seasons" explains Stuart Mackenzie, Motus Programme Manager for BSC.

Michael Lanzone, CEO of Cellular Tracking Technologies, says "Long-term tracking of smaller animals has been a significant hurdle for wildlife biologists. In our mission to help researchers through the Internet of Wildlife™, researchers and managers are seeing tremendous gains by our partnership with BSC, and are excited about the ability to help grow the Motus network and expand the body of scientific knowledge around the world."

Other lightweight tracking devices require biologists to recapture tagged animals. This is because the weight limit needed for small animal research eliminated the ability to transmit the data, as a transmitter would make the devices too heavy for the animal to behave normally. An additional limit was the life of a battery for systems that can include a transmitter. Recapture is needed to retrieve data from the devices, or studies were very short in duration with limited data transmission.

CTT LifeTag allows researchers to tag an animal once and receive data over the life of the animal. By eliminating relatively heavy batteries, there is now capacity for a transmitter that does not interfere with an animal's normal behavior, and the system gives near GPS level locations.

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About CTT

In 2005, Cellular Tracking Technologies created the first wildlife tracker that used GPS and the cellular network. Our commitment to expanding the body of scientific knowledge of wildlife through movement ecology drives us. We invent to support the noble work our research, management and consulting partners do to achieve new discoveries that help people make informed decisions about our world. Cellular Tracking Technologies has delivered thousands of wildlife telemetry devices to hundreds of researchers around the world.

About Motus

The purpose of Motus is to facilitate landscape-scale research and education on the ecology and conservation of migratory animals. It is a program of Bird Studies Canada (BSC) in partnership with Acadia University and collaborating researchers and organizations. In 2014 a major infrastructure expansion was made possible through a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant to Western University, The University of Guelph, and Acadia University. This gave rise to the Motus Wildlife Tracking System. The system has grown steadily since that time and as of March 2019 over 600 receiving stations were active across the Western Hemisphere.