Our sustainable and versatile tracking system Camazotz is being used to monitor flying foxes across Australia, helping ecologists understand and predict the spread of disease.
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"The Department of Environment and Science have contracted CSIRO to track Little Red Flying-Foxes as part of a larger project to reduce conflict between flying-foxes and humans. While other species of flying-fox tend to stay in the same area, Little Reds are highly nomadic and travel great distances in search of seasonal food sources. Research, which involved fitting trackers on some Little Reds in Charters Towers have backed these travels, with some bats ending up in Aurukun, Normanton, Carnarvon Gorge, and even all the way South near the Hunter Valley in New South Wales!
Why is tracking these flying-foxes travels so important? In Queensland, Little Reds are the species that causes the most human-flying fox conflict, and we currently don’t know much about their habits. We can apply what we learn from this tracking study to develop innovative management strategies to help communities affected by living near flying-fox roosts."
"The challenge
Improving tracking technology
Flying foxes are a major player in the biodiversity stakes. Their ecological role serves to pollinate and disperse seeds of trees including our iconic Eucalyptus.
Dozens of Camazotz devices have been placed on flying fox collars throughout Australia.
Up until now it has been difficult to undertake surveillance of flying foxes as they are nocturnally active and can travel vast distances. This is why a sustainable and versatile tracking platform was needed.
Our response
Introducing Camazotz
Camazotz is a low power autonomous device that promises to revolutionise long-term tracking of mobile assets, from wildlife such as flying foxes to livestock and even public bicycle fleets.
It uses a low power system-on-a-chip with processing and short-range radio communication, multimodal sensors including a GPS module, inertial unit, temperature, pressure, audio and solar panels for long-term energy replenishment.
Camazotz’s ability to operate sustainably without any human involvement or continuous connection make it suitable for most outdoor tracking applications.
The technology’s benefits include:
Autonomy: As a fully autonomous tracking device, Camazotz can track mobile assets almost indefinitely with no human intervention. This feature is particularly useful for wildlife tracking where there is virtually no physical access to devices once deployed.
Configurability: This technology supports full reconfiguration through remote wireless commands. A key feature that can be remotely configured is contact logging, where Camazotz tracking devices can be set to exchange information with other Camazotz devices. This enables data exchange from remote devices that may not return to a base node for a long time.
Sustainability: Camazotz provides near-indefinite tracking for small highly mobile assets. It operates on a tiny 300mAh battery, but thanks to its dual solar panels, it can harvest energy from the sun to replenish its supplies.
The results
Tracking flying foxes across Australia
Camazotz has been in operation within the National Flying Fox Monitoring Program for nearly two years. Dozens of devices have been placed on flying fox collars and have successfully delivered high quality tracking information that is unprecedented for animals of this size and weight. This deployment is planned to expand to around 1000 devices.
The information captured by these devices is highly valuable to vector ecologists who use it to predict Hendra disease and crop damage risk across Australia, and to understand the species' role in the ecosystem as seed dispersal agents.
Long-term tracking of small assets is a very active area of technology, with an increasing worldwide demand for location-based services and continuous tracking devices.
Other promising applications for Camazotz include traceability of goods and parcels, sensor-based logistics and asset tracking. "
Flying Fox Research - Sunshine Coast
Published on May 25, 2015
Sunshine Coast Council is delivering pioneering research that will inform and improve Flying fox management in the region.
Council has become the first local government in Queensland to deploy satellite tracking technology to monitor Flying fox populations on the Sunshine Coast.
Council will monitor the animals over the next six to 12 months, using live mapping data provided by the trackers to answer questions such as how far do they travel, is there a relationship between roosts, where do they feed and do management activities work.
Anyone wishing to track the project can do so at http://www.movebank.org where results are updated daily.
Study Details
Study Name pteropus alecto Sunshine Coast
Contact Person SunshineCoastCouncil (Sunshine Coast Council)
Principal Investigator SunshineCoastCouncil (Sunshine Coast Council)
Acknowledgements Sunshine Coast Council CSIRO Joanne Towsey
Study Summary Investigation of local movements of Black Flying-foxes within the Sunshine Coast Local Government Area.
Study Reference Location
Longitude 153.087
Latitude -26.529
Movebank ID 63770020
Study Statistics
Number of Animals 10
Number of Tags 10
Number of Deployments 10
Time of First Deployed Location 2015-04-14 00:05:41.000
Time of Last Deployed Location 2016-05-03 07:14:05.000
Taxa Pteropus alecto
Number of Deployed Locations 1829
Study Details
Study Name pteropus alecto Sunshine Coast
Contact Person SunshineCoastCouncil (Sunshine Coast Council)
Principal Investigator SunshineCoastCouncil (Sunshine Coast Council)
Acknowledgements Sunshine Coast Council CSIRO Joanne Towsey
Study Summary Investigation of local movements of Black Flying-foxes within the Sunshine Coast Local Government Area.
Study Reference Location
Longitude 153.087
Latitude -26.529
Movebank ID 63770020
Study Statistics
Number of Animals 10
Number of Tags 10
Number of Deployments 10
Time of First Deployed Location 2015-04-14 00:05:41.000
Time of Last Deployed Location 2016-05-03 07:14:05.000
Taxa Pteropus alecto
Number of Deployed Locations 1829
blue line = one bat movement
GPS Data Logger for Flying Fox
Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection and Minister for National Parks and the Great Barrier Reef
The Honourable Steven Miles
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Satellite tracking to be deployed for flying fox management
The Queensland Government has announced a $2.7 million investment over three years to help local councils monitor little-red flying fox movements and to improve management of roosts in urban areas.Environment Minister Dr Steven Miles confirmed today (Saturday) the additional funding would be allocated in next week’s State Budget.
Dr Miles said the Government recognised the need to manage urban flying-fox roosts to address community concerns, while ensuring the long-term survival of these species in the wild.
“We recognise that some flying fox roosts in built-up areas need intervention to protect residents from nuisance impacts such as smell and noise. And we also recognise the vital role played by flying foxes in pollinating native plants and maintaining forest health,” Dr Miles said.
“We also acknowledge that while Councils can move roosts on, they have no control over where they go next. So understanding their movements will make sure Councils aren’t just shuffling a problem around their community, or to a neighbouring Council.”
As part of the program CSIRO scientists will fit little-red flying foxes with GPS transmitters to track their movements by satellite to gain a greater understanding of their roosting preferences, where they feed and the factors that influence their behaviour.
The program will commence later this year in Charters Towers in North Queensland, the gateway between the Cape York Peninsula where hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of little-red flying foxes spend winter before heading south in the warmer months in search of flowering Eucalypt.
“It makes sense to start the project in the north of the state, so that we can track flying fox movements around that area, as they come and go into Cape York Peninsula, and as they make their way down to the southern and central parts of the state,” Dr Miles said.
The use of GPS transmitters and satellite monitoring will allow flying fox movements to be tracked and interpreted across thousands of kilometres.
Dr Miles said information gained from this work would guide future decision-making and approaches to the management of flying fox roosts in urban areas.
“Residents in urban areas throughout Queensland have experienced issues that come with an increase in flying fox camps near residents.
“Towns such as Kilcoy and Linville and areas on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts became hot-spots for little-red flying foxes.
“This research is intended to improve our understanding of flying fox behaviour – and will benefit residents from the far north to the state’s south-east,’’ he said.
Director of Australian Bat Clinic, Trish Wimberley, who has provided advice to many Queensland councils about managing flying fox roosts, said the State Government research would be invaluable.
“It is important councils have science based education and knowledge if and when it becomes necessary to move or maintain flying fox camps in local suburbs,’’ she said.
“It is equally important that these populations remain healthy across their range.
“GPS tracking studies will most certainly help us better understand the behaviours of flying foxes in a changing environment,’’ she said.
Scientist and vice-president of the Australasian Bat Society, Dr Monika Rhodes, also welcomed the research.
“There has been little work done to study the behaviour and ecology of little-red flying foxes and I welcome this new research which will help fill this knowledge gap,” Dr Rhodes said.
“We know that flying fox roosts can be a challenging issue for communities across Queensland, and it is important that management decision are based on the best available science”.
Dr Miles said the government would continue to allow councils to take action to address local flying fox problems.
“We will work closely with local governments to improve council practices, but councils will continue to have authority to manage flying-foxes at roosts in urban areas.
“Councils can carry out more intense urban roost management activities as long as they obtain a Flying-fox Roost Management Permit from the Queensland Government.
“In keeping with our election commitment, we will review the flying-fox management framework and introduce changes as necessary.
“Any future decisions must be scientifically-sound and not put flying-fox populations at risk,” he said.
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