In September the very first bull elk was equipped with a satellite-telemetric monitoring collar. This tracing device will give the mammalologists of the wildlife monitoring department of the Environment Agency necessary data about the whereabouts, habitat utilization, behavioral ecology etc.
The tracing subject was caught in the Soomaa National Park and during the next months it has moved around in the Park, albeit changed the location from one edge to the other. The main reason of active movements in the autumn is the hunting season. The traced elk is usually moving around in the radius of 10 km. The monitoring device is spotting the animal every 4th hour while the coordinates are sent to the main server of the team. Local hunters are also briefed about the elk with a wide and bright white collar, clearly visible in the twilight as well.
The wildlife monitoring team is planning to put the tracing collars all together to 10 elks. Now, when there is much more snow, it becomes possible to follow and catch the animals with a snow mobile.
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| Photo: Marko Kübarsepp / Source: www.keskkonnaagentuur.ee |
When the animals are already collared and thoroughly monitored, it will be possible to research their abundance or physiology as well, e.g. their endoparasites from their droppings etc.
So far the Environment Agency has used collars to monitor Roe Deer, Wild Boar, Lynx and Wolf.
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