Tracking technology leads to new era of management

In the 1960s the world of wildlife management gained a tool that transformed wildlife research and management - radio telemetry.

It allowed biologists to track animals from the ground or air, without having to see the animal or the animal knowing it was being observed.

In Idaho, the first radio collars were used in the 1970s on an elk study in the Clearwater River country. That study provided baseline data on elk use of the Clearwater River prior to the Dworshak dam being built.

The first transmitters and receivers were homemade devices developed by tinkering biologists in the 1960s. They were limited to short distance telemetry and required bulky, short-lived batteries.

Only the largest animals, like elk, would carry the transmitters. Even though the early devices were bulky and weren't very reliable, they quickly gained popularity and by the 1970s radio tracking telemetry was an essential wildlife management tool.

Today, telemetry transmitters are small enough to be inserted in fish and carried by sage grouse chicks. The signals from the transmitters now use satellite technology that allows locations to be delivered in real time to biologists' computers.

Telemetry has truly transitioned wildlife research and management from the observations of a naturalist biologist to quantitative and objective science, moving our knowledge and understanding of wildlife into an entirely new era.