TY - JOUR AU - Dettki, Holger AU - Ericsson, Göran AU - Edenius, Lars PY - 2004/01/01 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - REAL-TIME MOOSE TRACKING: AN INTERNET BASED MAPPING APPLICATION USING GPS/GSM-COLLARS IN SWEDEN JF - Alces: A Journal Devoted to the Biology and Management of Moose JA - Alces VL - 40 IS - SE - Articles DO - UR - https://alcesjournal.org/index.php/alces/article/view/427 SP - 13-21 AB - <p>To date, moose (<em>Alces alces</em>) tracking has relied on techniques either based on ‘Very High Frequency’ (VHF) / ‘Ultra High Frequency’ (UHF) radio collars, or Global Positioning System (GPS) collars, often requiring significant effort in the field to collect data. Here we present a technique that automatically tracks and reports moose in almost real time, and presents moose positions and movement paths with an interactive web-based map service. We equipped 25 female moose with GPS/GSM collars in Västerbotten county, northern Sweden. The GPS receivers acquired a position every 30 minutes and transmitted them after 3.5 hours as a standard Short Messaging Service (SMS) message using the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) cell phone network. The positions were automatically extracted from the receiving local GSM-modem and stored in a database. During 18 days in March 2003, 18,638 GPS positions were transmitted by 2,719 SMS messages. Of all positioning attempts 98.1% resulted in a valid position, whereof 99.7% were 3-dimensional positions. The real-time approach allows for many new research studies; e.g., smallscale migrational studies with adapted GPS schedules for different phases of migration. Further, public access to the moose data by a web-based map can be of fundamental importance for public acceptance when dealing with local concerns.</p> ER -