Wildlife surveys at Malheur Refuge are getting a technological boost courtesy of the Motus Wildlife Tracking System (Motus), an international collaborative research network utilizing automated radio telemetry to track migratory animals.
“Within the Refuge’s Comprehensive Conservation Plan are several wildlife surveys that we conduct every year, including shorebird surveys on Malheur and Harney Lake. These lakes host an abundance of migratory shorebirds every spring and fall. As part of our objective to collect baseline data on birds’ use of these habitats, we’re now using Motus towers to track tagged shorebirds remotely,” said Alexa Martinez, Malheur Refuge Wildlife Biologist.
Malheur Refuge currently has two Motus towers, one at Refuge Headquarters and one at Boca Reservoir. A third will be installed in the Double O region on the western end of the Refuge, to hopefully detect tagged birds using alkaline playas on Stinking Lake, the west spring of Harney Lake, and neighboring BLM land.
This system uses antennas to listen for messages from special radio tags that have been attached to wildlife by researchers all over the world. Different size tags can be attached to birds, bats or even insects. When an animal with a Motus tag flies into the range of the receiver, its signal is decoded and information specific to that individual is uploaded to a server. Under ideal conditions, tags can be detected up to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) away.
“And perhaps in the future, depending on funding, we could possibly start tagging our own birds with Motus tags,” said Martinez. “We could start tracking shorebirds hatched at Malheur Refuge to see whether they come back here to breed, or go elsewhere during migration.”
In the meantime, starting THIS spring, you will be able to interact with a MOTUS Kiosk in the Visitor Center at Refuge Headquarters. This kiosk is being funded by Friends of Malheur NWR and developed by a volunteer, Richard Schramm, who has already installed on at Finley National Wildlife Refuge in the Willamette Valley. This kiosk will have MOTUS news from Malheur and around the region and show real time data for species being detected through the MOTUS towers at Malheur!
