Research Projects >Testing
of a New Flat RF ID Tag and its Base Station for Steller Sea Lions
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Development of the Steller Sea
Lion Open Water Project: testing the effectiveness and energetic
costs of telemetry instruments
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The proposed studies will collectively yield critical information
on the accuracy and precision of specific tags, and their suitability
for deployment on wild animals, and the energetic costs and potential
behavioral reactions of wearing research instruments.
In a population context, these data will allow assessments
of the limitations of using tag telemetry in the wild, and will allow
researchers to refine their analyses of diving and swimming data to account
for the influence of the tag. Although many studies utilize remote telemetry
tags to study the behavior of animals, the accuracy of resulting data
may be limited by the fact that few tags are calibrated before deployment.
They are also limited by a poor understanding of the associated behavioral
and physiological costs.
What
Researchers hope to learn:
Using trained Steller sea lions at the Open Water Research Station,
experiments to link development and deployment stages of telemetry
tag studies will be carried out. Results will provide a clear measure
of the precision and biases associated with remote data collection,
and will provide scientists with more accurate information on Steller
sea lion foraging ecology. |
Project Outline:
Trained Steller sea lions at the Open Water Research Station will be used
to calibrate instruments, and to quantify the associated energetic costs
and behavioral responses during realistic diving scenarios. The experiments
will provide a crucial link between development and deployment stages
of telemetry tag studies. Results will provide a clear measure of the
precision and biases associated with remote data collection, providing
scientists with more accurate information on Steller sea lion foraging
ecology.
This study aims to calibrate a series of instruments, and will quantify
the associated energetic costs and behavioral responses using trained
Steller sea lions swimming and diving in an open ocean environment. Continued
studies of the energetic costs of diving and swimming will be combined
with evaluations of the physiological and behavioral effects and accuracy
of telemetry devices. This will facilitate quantitative assessments of
the potential limitations of using tag telemetry in the wild, and will
allow researchers to refine their analyses of diving and swimming data
to account for the potential influence of the tag.
Principle Investigators:
Gordon Hastie, University of British Columbia
David Rosen University of British Columbia
Andrew Trites, University of British Columbia
Funding Source:
NOAA and the North Pacific Marine Science Foundation
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