NASA satellites helps track animal movement

Today’s Video of the Day from NASA Goddard describes various data sources that make it easier for researchers to track animal movements and migrations. 

The Environmental Data Automated Track Annotation System (EnvDATA) is a free service that can be used to link animal movement data to environmental information from remote sensing projects and weather models from NASA and other Earth observing satellites. 

“In this recent project, led by Dr. Peter Mahoney at the University of Washington, we looked at how movement speeds of different animal species change with precipitation and temperature,” explained Sarah Davidson of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.

“And so we looked at data from more than 1700 animals, and we found that movement speeds of wolves, caribou, bears and moose did not seem to be affected by heavy summer rains, but that wolves, moose and boreal caribou moved less where there was higher snowfall in the winter.” 

“We also found that at higher temperatures, some species moved less while others were moving more, which could impact predator-prey relationships and the ability to find food as global temperatures continue to increase and as precipitation patterns change.”

Video Credit: NASA Goddard 

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer