Voyageurs NP to collar moose in climate change study

The potential effects of climate change and other factors on the long-term viability of moose in Voyageurs National Park has prompted a collaring project.

Park staff plan to capture up to 14 adult moose to attach state-of-art telemetry collars in the next weeks as part of a continuing project on moose in the park.

The project is a collaborative effort among scientists from Voyageurs National Park, the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Collars will be outfitted with global positioning system receivers that will record each animal’s position every 15 minutes. A subset of daily locations will be transmitted to project investigators via the ARGOS satellite system, providing a remote system to monitor animal movements in near real-time.

Standard VHF transmitters are part of each collar and can signal when a moose has died to allow quick retrieval of the collar and, if possible, a determination of death. Each collar is also fitted with external temperature and activity sensors. The collars are capable of storing up to 14 months of location, sensor, and activity data. Collars will be retrieved when animals are recaptured in February 2011.

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