2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Monitoring Endangered Species from Space - A First Application of ICARUS Technology for Long-Term High-Resolution Tracking of Cryptic Animals
| Project/Area Number |
17K15054
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Conservation of biological resources
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | バイオテレメトリー / ISS / wildlife tracking / movement ecology / bat / flying fox / Pteropus |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This project consisted in a practical assessment of ICARUS, which relies on low-energy, broadband communication with the low-orbiting International Space Station (ISS). ICARUS allowed for the development of very light (5 g), solar-powered biologging systems that can be equipped on small animals. We evaluated more particularly ICARUS-compatible prototype tags in this project.
As ICARUS was at that time still under development, the timespan of this project overlapped with the in-house testing of this technology and the absence of space link. Moreover, as ICARUS roll out was delayed on several occasions due to technical issues (e.g. EVA postponement due to ISS activities, coordination problems between the space agencies), our project's timeframe was postponed. The foregoing issues, however, led us to work in parallel to ICARUS on the design of new low-energy telecommunication technologies, which we are now turning into usable tracking systems jointly with our German partners.
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| Free Research Field |
総合生物
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
We technically assessed ICARUS tags based on novel space tracking technology, with global potential to serve society to conserve small endangered animals that are hard to study. Also, we gathered ecological data on the Ryukyu flying fox (Pteropus dasymallus), a threatened Japanese fruit bat.
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