Numlock Sunday: Moira Donovan on the breakthrough in animal tracking tech

By U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region Uploaded by AlbertHerring, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29815595

By Walt Hickey

Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.

This week, I spoke to Moira Donovan who wrote Teeny Tiny Trackers Take to the Water for bioGraphic. Here's what I wrote about it:

When scientists want to understand the movement of an animal species, they tag a few subjects with electronic tracking devices that can beam back the location and other vitals to the researchers. This strategy works on all kinds of creatures, but it gets considerably more difficult for smaller animals because the weight of the device starts impeding the subject’s ability to survive. Research indicates a tracking tag should weigh less than 2 percent of an animal’s mass to avoid hurting them. A key example of this phenomenon is the delta smelt, a small silvery fish that averages only 6.5 centimeters in length, found only in California and being pushed near exti…