{"id":10861,"date":"2011-05-23T12:28:18","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T19:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=10861"},"modified":"2013-01-25T12:36:38","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T19:36:38","slug":"in-living-collar-elk-don-neckwear-to-steer-clear-of-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/in-living-collar-elk-don-neckwear-to-steer-clear-of-danger\/","title":{"rendered":"In living collar: Elk don neckwear to steer clear of danger"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the forest near Flagstaff, elk are being outfitted with collars, not as a fashion statement but to tell researchers what they and other animals need to navigate through urban sprawl, climate change and large restoration projects.<\/p>\n

Researchers like Northern Arizona University\u2019s\u00a0Paul Beier<\/strong>, a conservation biology and wildlife ecology professor in the School of Forestry, said this information is critically important to keep animals from stepping into danger or even extinction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith climate change, we have the situation where habitat is literally moving out from under the feet of wildlife,\u201d he said. \u201cIn order for these species to stay where they are, in terms of a healthy population, they have to move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beier is developing maps detailing links for wild areas\u2014or wildlife corridors\u2014to help land managers understand how animals move across the land.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re creating landscapes that are more permeable than the landscapes we had a decade or two decades ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For Arizona Game and Fish Department wildlife biologist Jeff Gagnon, the job of collaring an elk is somewhat like a rodeo event. Within minutes, he and a team of wildlife managers can calm a frightened animal that might weigh as much as a thousand pounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fit the collar to make sure the animal has some space and isn\u2019t being choked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"collars\"<\/a>
Arizona Game and Fish wildlife biologist Chad Loberger reaches for a high-tech elk collar. Every two hours it sends GPS signals to satellites giving the location of the animal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gagnon has been tracking some 130 elk around major highways including interstates 17 and 40. \u201cWe know where the animals are, what kind of habitat they are using and what barriers are stopping them. For a lot of animals when we fragment their habitat, they can\u2019t get to resources like summer or winter range. We also run the risk of isolating or breaking up the herd, which can lead to a smaller gene pool and a weaker species.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0The collar is programmed to fall off in a few months. But in the meantime, every two hours a GPS unit is sending signals to satellites that are sending signals to biologists.<\/p>\n

With information about wildlife movement, highways are becoming less of a hindrance, and safer for wildlife and people. Groups like the Arizona Department of Transportation, Elk Society, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Federal Highway Administration are funding research and passageways.<\/p>\n

For example, along State Route 260 near Payson, highway improvement projects have included wildlife crossings. \u201cAnimals are using the crossings,\u201d Gagnon said, \u201cand collisions between elk and motorists have been reduced by at least 85 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wally Covington<\/strong>, director of NAU\u2019s Ecological Restoration Institute, said managing for wildlife corridors is increasingly important as forests are restored on a landscape scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross hundreds of thousands of acres, natural habitat can be restored,\u201d he said. \u201cWildlife can self-regulate. Predator\/prey dynamics can keep populations in a sustainable, steady state that\u2019s characteristic of the evolutionary environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wearing high-tech necklaces, today\u2019s elk may well be leading the way for tomorrow\u2019s wildlife corridors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing something that really matters,\u201d Beier said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fabulous triple win situation. It\u2019s better for people, less road kill and more wildlife movement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the forest near Flagstaff, elk are being outfitted with collars, not as a fashion statement but to tell researchers what they and other animals need to navigate through urban sprawl, climate change and large restoration projects. Researchers like Northern Arizona University\u2019s\u00a0Paul Beier, a conservation biology and wildlife ecology professor in the School of Forestry,…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":10864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}