Remote sensing of animals

Abstract

The improved accuracy and precision of animal tracking via satellites has made a significant impact on quantifying large-scale biogeographic patterns for a variety of taxa with important implications for conservation and natural resource management. This paper reviews research undertaken from 1995 to 1999 to provide an overview of advances in the remote sensing of animal movements in both terrestrial and marine environments and to identify promising trends for biogeographic research in the twenty-first century. Remote sensing of animals by satellite provides a new method to test a number of biogeographic hypotheses related to migration and can identify a number of environmental correlates associated with the distributions of species. Tracking of smaller species and increases in sample size are sure to occur as transmitter size and cost continue to decrease in the next decade. Geographers can significantly contribute to the understanding of species dispersal and distributional patterns by combining real-time and archived global and regional datasets with existing data from past studies and future research projects. Only four studies used GIS data or remote sensed imagery in this review, while the remaining studies cited used simple digital line graphs of countries, topography, land and sea boundaries.