TRACKING WILDLIFE BY SATELLITE 41 



Captive Moose 



A. 



o 



Kilometers 



Wild Moose 



B. 



Lake 



o 



Kilometers 



Fig. 37. Movements of an adult female moose in south-central Alaska (A) during three nonconsecutive 1 8-h periods during winter 

 1988. Apparent "movements" of a nearly sedentary moose (B) were generated by randomly selecting from among successive 

 locations of a captive moose within a 5-ha pen. Data courtesy of R. Modaferri, Alaska Department of Fish and Game. 



passes between 1 April 1987 and 28 February 1988. Ade- 

 quate data for calculating the wolf's location were ob- 

 tained from 512 of these overpasses. Ballard obtained an 

 average of 3. 1 4.7 (standard deviation; SD) locations per 

 day; at least one location was received on 92% of the 167 

 days the transmitter was active. The remaining 364 over- 

 passes provided sensor data (e.g., canister temperature and 

 short- and long-term indices of the wolf's activity) but no 

 location. The minimum distance traveled by the wolf be- 



tween April 1987 and February 1988 was 2,618 km. 



Activity data provided by this prototype wolf PTT was 

 of little value. There was no significant correlation (/ = 

 0.33, n = 21, P = 0.14) between mean distance traveled 

 during 2-week intervals and the mean long-term activity 

 index. In contrast to work with other species, periods of 

 rest and activity could not be discerned from the short- 

 term activity counts. The mercury switch within the canis- 

 ter was oriented parallel to the wolf's spine and to the 



5,000 

 4,000 



x 







^ 3,000 



~ 2,000 



"o 



< 1,000 



.c 



* t 



0.1 



0.08 1 ^ 



0.06 



.c 



^ 



Fig. 38. Relation between the 24-h activity in- 

 ^ dex and rate of movement for an adult female 

 moose in south-central Alaska. Data courtesy 

 C of R. Modaferri, Alaska Department of Fish 

 ^ and Game. 



$ 



Mte 



