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First published online January 8, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 181-186 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02629

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Commentary

Going wild: what a global small-animal tracking system could do for experimental biologists

Martin Wikelski^1,*, Roland W. Kays², N. Jeremy Kasdin³, Kasper Thorup⁴, James A. Smith⁵ and George W. Swenson, Jr⁶

¹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
² Mammal Lab, New York State Museum, CEC 3140, Albany, NY 12230, USA
³ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
⁴ Copenhagen Bird Ringing Centre, Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Denmark
⁵ Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
⁶ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: wikelski{at}princeton.edu)

Accepted 26 October 2006

Tracking animals over large temporal and spatial scales has revealed invaluable and spectacular biological information, particularly when the paths and fates of individuals can be monitored on a global scale. However, only large animals (greater than 300 g) currently can be followed globally because of power and size constraints on the tracking devices. And yet the vast majority of animals is small. Tracking small animals is important because they are often part of evolutionary and ecological experiments, they provide important ecosystem services and they are of conservation concern or pose harm to human health. Here, we propose a small-animal satellite tracking system that would enable the global monitoring of animals down to the size of the smallest birds, mammals (bats), marine life and eventually large insects. To create the scientific framework necessary for such a global project, we formed the ICARUS initiative (www.IcarusInitiative.org), the International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space. ICARUS also highlights how small-animal tracking could address some of the `Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences' identified by the US National Academy of Sciences, such as the spread of infectious diseases or the relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem functioning. Small-animal tracking would allow the quantitative assessment of dispersal and migration in natural populations and thus help solve enigmas regarding population dynamics, extinctions and invasions. Experimental biologists may find a global small-animal tracking system helpful in testing, validating and expanding laboratory-derived discoveries in wild, natural populations. We suggest that the relatively modest investment into a global small-animal tracking system will pay off by providing unprecedented insights into both basic and applied nature.

Tracking small animals over large spatial and temporal scales could prove to be one of the most powerful techniques of the early 21st century, offering potential solutions to a wide range of biological and societal questions that date back two millennia to the Greek philosopher Aristotle's enigma about songbird migration. Several of the more recent Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences, such as the regulation and functional consequences of biological diversity or the surveillance of the population ecology of zoonotic hosts, pathogens or vectors, could also be addressed by a global small-animal tracking system.

Our discussion is intended to contribute to an emerging groundswell of scientific support to make such a new technological system happen.

Key words: small animal, ICARUS initiative, migration pattern, migratory bird orientation, satellite, field experiments, tracking technology, telemetry, songbird, bat, insect

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