Whooping Cranes are the tallest and among the rarest birds in North America. They have been listed as an endangered species since 1967. All Whooping Cranes alive today--both wild and captive--are descendants of the last 15 remaining cranes found wintering in Texas in 1941.
Since then, scientists and conservationists have been working to conserve and protect these delicate animals. One conservation method is to monitor wild Whooping Cranes during their migration between Alberta, Canada and Texas, as well as reintroducing Whooping Cranes to Wisconsin and Florida.
Scientists from the UNL Computer Science and Engineering Department, Professor M. Can Vuran, Matt Dwyer, and Sebastian Elbaum, have been working with ecologists Anne Lacy and Mike Engels in the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in Baraboo, Wisconsin to develop adaptive sensor networks that monitor migratory birds throughout their continental journeys.
The UNL-developed sensor system, CraneTracker, provides the birds' locations as well as their real-time migration movements. This summer, Dr. Vuran and two UNL graduate students, Dave Anthony and Paul Bennett, visited ICF for initial CraneTracker tests. The tracker was first tested on "Hagrid," "A. Right," and "Bazov," three captive Siberian Cranes on the ICF grounds.
The CraneTracker was harnessed using a backpack design developed by ICF. Cranes are monitored by a camera which observes their reactions to the new backpacks. Meanwhile, the trackers record their locations and movements, instantly sending the data back to scientists wirelessly. The initial tests with captive cranes provided very promising results for the tracking device and backpack technique.
Motivated by this success, on a foggy morning, ICF and UNL scientists went out to a field in Wisconsin to test the CraneTracker on a wild Sandhill Crane. A CraneTracker device was mounted onto "JB", a male Sandhill Crane, and tested for two weeks in the wild.
The gathered information was used to improve capabilities of the CraneTracker, and ICF scientists tested a second version on captive and wild cranes. The UNL scientists monitored the sensing, communication, and energy consumption profile of the trackers. This profile was used to improve future revisions of the platform.
To advance research, Dr. Vuran and two UNL students, Paul Bennett and Derek Homan, returned to ICF in the last week of September to deploy additional trackers on additional wild Sandhill Cranes.
The tracking units were altered with improved enclosure and system updates. During their week at ICF, the UNL and ICF team captured three more wild Sandhill Cranes, and each were equipped with tracking units and released without harm.
The UNL scientists have received promising results from the deployed cranes. All devices are ready to assist in improving the understanding of Sandhill Crane behavior.
The units are amending more sensing, communication, and energy consumption results that will be used to enhance the next revision before deploying on reintroduced Whooping Cranes.
Disclaimer: Trained professionals handled "JB," "Hagrid," "A. Right," "Bazov," and the three additional wild Sandhill Cranes and no harm was made. Actually, they looked cool with their new backpacks.
Check out photos of the conservation work on the CSE Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/CSEatUNL.