Cell Phones, Satellites Help Prevent Wildlife/Auto Collisions

Countless cell phones on the ground and 24 satellites, orbiting 12,550 miles up in the sky and connected by the Internet, are part of a project in Island Park to help decrease vehicle collisions, resulting in deaths of wildlife and humans. The joint project with the Idaho Department of Transportation, Idaho Fish and Game and the Wildlife Conservation Society will combine observations collected through the tracking efforts of volunteers with highly specific data collected by Global Positioning System satellites from radio collars. This information will be combined with images and information from the public on the Internet to help understand wildlife behavior better around roadways and to identify landscape features that create successful or unsuccessful crossing points along Highway 20 in Island Park. Last February, Fish and Game placed GPS collars on 30 cow elk and 26 cow moose. Data has been collected to see where these animals move back and forth across the highway. Volunteers have patrolled the route to see what animals have been killed and where un-collared animals crossed the road as well. "The goal of this project is to not just indentify where animals cross the highway, but the quality of the crossings," University of Montana graduate student Nick Sharp said. "We want to learn what makes a good place to cross versus a place where animals end up as road kills and automobiles are damaged." The study may also provide more insight into how various species react to the noise and movement of traffic. While state agencies and a private wildlife organization are using a variety of methods to collect most of the information on this project, the public can play an important role. "Thanks to the new wildlife reporting website and the new smart-phone technology, images collected by the public of wildlife killed on the highway and live animals moving nearby can be included in the project as well," Sharp said. The latest "smart" cell phones can automatically record the location of pictures and transmit the information onto a specially designed website. The newly created Idaho Fish and Wildlife Information System website is available for the public to enter information about road kills or sightings of live wildlife and upload GPS location tagged pictures. This information will add another layer of "citizen science" to tracking information already being collected by the Idaho Master Naturalists, a cadre of volunteers trained to assist in multiple facets of the project. "Every year there are over 30 collisions between wildlife and vehicles in this section of Highway 20," Sharp said. "This information collected during this joint project will be extremely valuable to managers trying to determine ways to improve human and wildlife safety not just along Highway 20, but elsewhere." To enter information and pictures about wildlife along Highway 20 create an IFWIS account at: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/ifwis.