Sariska tigers to get hi-tech gadgets

Sariska tigers to get hi-tech gadgets

15 Jun 2009, 1232 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: Having “chewed” their radio-collars, the three tigers in Sariska will soon get new high-tech and light weight gadgets around their necks to enable officials to track their movement.

“This time we will use radio-collars having in-built antenna for animals unlike the earlier ones which had external antenna. We found that the predators had chewed each other’s antenna during playing,” K Shankar, an expert from Wildlife Institute of India (WII), said.

The collars weighing around one kg have been given free of cost by Canada-based firm, Lotek in view of the failure of its previous gadgets. “As per norms, the weight of the collar is much less than 5% of the body weight of the animal which is usually around 150 kgs.”

Shankar said the collars were an important part of the animal recovery species plan and would keep a track on the movement of the royal predators- – two female and a male big cat shifted phase wise since July last year from Ranthambore tiger reserves.

Two more tigers are planned to be relocated to Sariska reserve before 2010.

Wildlife official explained that the collar contains transmitters that sends information in short pulses, which is picked up by a satellite, which in turn transmits the data to dedicated centres, in this case Argos centres for processing.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health–Science/Earth/Flora–Fauna/Sariska-tigers-to-get-hi-tech-gadgets/articleshow/4657925.cms

http://bigcatrescue.org