Our group is in charge of developing a tracking system that improves upon current solutions. The current solution for tracking the monkeys include darting the monkey, putting a radio transmitter collar on the monkey. The observer then tunes in that frequency with a radio receiver and listen for a blip. The hard part is actually telling where the monkey is. The user has to have some skill telling the direction of the blip. Tracking a the monkeys requires using a directional antenna with a radio receiver and listening for faint blips. The user then follows the strongest signal of blips until they can visually see the tagged monkey.
Our group Lisa Maria, Sonaar, Zeven and I want to create a solution that improves upon current technology. For starters, the current receiver require opening the unit up to change the frequency that the receiver listens to. This can be solved by purchasing any radio scanner (receiver). These radio scanners can scan through 50 frequencies a second and can be programmed to remember frequency such as those of the radio collars. These scanners are cheaper than the current receiver which cost around $800. A commercial radio scanner can be purchased for a $100 and have a lot more functionality.
We propose to improve current technology and instruments used to track wildlife. We will look into alternative telemetry receivers, antennas and tagging transmitters. We will test and compare current instruments to different alternatives.