Electronic Wildlife Recovery Tool

Abstract

ABSTRACT Oil spills can have significant impact on wildlife. Documenting the spatial and temporal data associated with oil spills is an important component that aids in all phases of the response. After struggling long hours to incorporate hardcopy records into a Geographic Information System (GIS), the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) recognized the importance of developing a wildlife recovery application specifically designed for the Wildlife Branch within the Incident Command System (ICS). The Wildlife Recovery Application (WRA) is an iOS based program designed to work optimally on an iPhone. The objective of the application was to keep it simple intuitive, reliable, and effective. The WRA can be used with minimal training and has the ability to operate in environments without cellular service. The interface permits the user to visually review the data and photographs, allowing the user to electronically transmit the information to the GIS Unit remotely once cell service or wireless internet has been established. Once the data is transmitted to the Incident Command Post (ICP), the information can be quickly integrated into a GIS. This eliminates the difficult task of manually inputting data from handwritten field notes that may have been compromised by the environmental elements or illegible due to variations in handwriting styles or penmanship. Lastly, the Care and Processing Group within the Wildlife Branch can integrate the data into an on-line medical database designed specifically for wildlife rehabilitators to collect, manage and analyze data for their individual wildlife patients.