40 



FISH AND WILDLIFE TECHNICAL REPORT 30 



Mammoth NJ. % >J -.._ 



Fig. 36. Movements of two bull elk in Yellowstone National Park 

 during fall 1987. Solid lines represent movements of a 12-year 

 old; dashed lines represent movements of a yearling. A. Loca- 

 tions calculated by assuming PTT's were at sea level. B. 

 Locations adjusted by assuming a mean elevation for the study 

 area. Data courtesy of D. Vales, University of Idaho. 



fitted with 1.2-kg third-generation PTT's. The third- 

 generation PTT's were programmed to transmit 18 h/day, 

 beginning just before the hunting season. To prolong bat- 

 tery life, the transmission schedule changed to 6 h every 3 

 days immediately following the hunting season. 



The duty cycle worked as planned and provided inten- 

 sive coverage during the hunting season. During that time, 



three of the four deer remained fairly sedentary, but one 

 made a southerly movement that involved crossing a few 

 major roads in the area. 



Moose: South-central Alaska 



In a study of moose near Wasilla, Alaska, biologist R. 

 Modaferri used conventional radiotelemetry. However, 

 even when the weather allowed him to obtain locations, he 

 only gathered spot information about the activity patterns 

 of these moose. An attempt was made, using Argos, to 

 obtain detailed information on feeding and resting pat- 

 terns and to determine whether specific habitats were 

 used. Two adult female moose were captured in December 

 1987 and fitted with second-generation PTT's. Both 

 PTT's were programmed to transmit for 1 8 h every 3 days. 

 This resulted in up to 13 locations being obtained during 

 each transmission period, followed by 54 h without 

 locations. 



Locations within each of the 18-h periods were gener- 

 ally within 2-3 km of each other (Fig. 37). Because loca- 

 tion errors are expected to be of approximately this magni- 

 tude (Fig. 37, inset), it would be difficult to discriminate 

 true movements from "movements" caused merely by 

 telemetry error. 



Activity patterns during winter were an additional focus 

 of this moose study. The 24-h index was significantly 

 correlated (Spearman r s = 0.543, P < 0.02) with the dis- 

 tance traveled between days of PTT transmission (esti- 

 mated by calculating the minimum distance between the 

 single best location from each 1 8-h transmission period; 

 Fig. 38). Analyses of the short-term activity index have 

 not been completed. 



Wolf: Northwestern Alaska 



In April 1987, a 1.2-kg third-generation PTT with 

 C-size lithium batteries was deployed on a male wolf in 

 northwestern Alaska as part of a cooperative study be- 

 tween W. Ballard of ADFG and the AFWRC. This proto- 

 type PTT was used with VHP transmitters in a study to 

 obtain daily movement data for wolf packs on the winter 

 range of the Western Arctic caribou herd. A primary ob- 

 jective of the study was to develop procedures for census- 

 ing wolves on caribou winter range. 



Because of the smaller battery size and low tempera- 

 tures (<-40 C) during winter in the study area, the PTT 

 was expected to transmit for only 6 months on a duty cycle 

 of 6 h on-42 h off. However, the PTT provided locations 

 (Fig. 39) and sensor data until the wolf was shot by a 

 hunter in late February 1988; it continued to transmit until 

 June 1988. Data were received from 876 satellite over- 



