Last updated on December 30th, 2023 at 09:20 am
The North American Wood Ape Conservancy developed and implemented a novel technique for attaching radio telemetry devices without first capturing, manually tagging, then releasing the target species. This self-tagging technique was specifically designed to track the locations and movement of a hypothesized, as yet scientifically unrecognized, primate species inhabiting the Ouachita Mountain Ecoregion. One tag was successfully activated in August 2015. Locational information acquired over the ensuing months through June 2016, using airborne and ground search teams, indicated the tag was attached to a highly mobile individual ranging over an area of extremely rough and mountainous terrain encompassing approximately 115 km² (45 mi²). This study represents the first-time quantifiable data can be applied to issues pertaining to movement and home range of the putative species. This method provides a significant advance that is applicable to studies of relictual hominoids elsewhere.
Download the NAWAC’s paper about Tag 7
Listen to the NAWAC’s podcast: Apes Among Us: Tag 7.
