Wildlife Radio Tracking

One of the most interesting uses of small airplanes is tracking wild game which has been radio collared for research. I had been flying for only a few years when I had the opportunity to participate in such an adventure.

First, the biologist has to capture the animal, which can be a tricky business. The wolf researcher who asked me to help her had trapped a number of animals, tranquilized them with carefully-measured doses of medication, and attached radio collars with the help of a large quantity of duct tape. Once the selected animals recover from the effects of the tranquilizer, they seem to go about their normal daily business, oblivious to the human beings who track them on foot or from the air.

A direction finder, which can be tuned to receive signals on a frequency specific to a documented animal, is carried by hand for on-foot tracking, or on the researcher’s lap in the back seat of a small airplane. The antenna for the direction finder is either mounted on a hand-held pole (for on-foot tracking), or bracketed to the strut or belly of the airplane. The animal’s collar has a relatively short transmission radius, so terrain can blank out the signals on the ground. Tracking by air is much more efficient, as signals can be picked up over a larger area, and territory can be covered at 100 mph instead of 2 mph (or less, depending on how much brush and downed timber stymies the researcher’s progress on the ground). The draw-back is expense, but I had agreed to volunteer my airplane and time for the project.

I arrived at a small, unpaved airstrip in the research area while dew and grazing deer were still on the grass. The biologist was ready to go immediately, so we began attaching the antenna to my Aeronca Sedan’s wing strut with clamps. The transmitting cable was passed through the window, and everyone piled in to prepare for the flight. We agreed on hand signals for directional guidance: a tap on the right shoulder, turn right 90 degrees; tap left, turn left 90 degrees; thumb down, descend; thumb up, climb; point down when animal located for circling observation. The Sedan bumped down the short airstrip, and we lifted off, skimming across the creek, then climbing toward the area where the wolves were last spotted.

The view was spectacular, with the snow-covered peaks and lakes of Glacier National Park on the right, a broad, timbered valley below, Canadian Rockies to the north, and gentler mountains on our left. We stayed low enough that we had to climb a bit to cross rocky ridges between side valleys. Light taps on my shoulders directed me to a small green dell that was criss-crossed with trails in a wagon-spoke pattern. At the center of the hub was a wolf den. We climbed along the ridge paralleling the little valley, then turned sharply 180 degrees, throttled the engine back to near-silence, and glided down across the den like a hawk looking for mice. We were rewarded by the sight of six wolf pups - some black, some white - scampering on the den mound. As the shadow of the Sedan crossed them, they dove for cover, and refused to come back out. The alpha male and female were under the brush nearby, no doubt encouraging the youngsters to stay out of sight. The biologist was quite excited to see all the pups frisky and healthy, as this was the first litter to be recorded in Montana.

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