Keeping Tabs on Tabby as Fido Tracks Cheetah Calling Cards
Do we know how to sniff out stories about GPS fleet tracking or what? This time, the “fleet” consists of domestic cats in the United Kingdom and a border collie on its way to track big cats in Africa. Well, it’s not exactly tracking the cheetahs themselves; but what they, er, left behind. But more on that later.
A study from the University of Reading in Britain found that housecats kill millions of small wild animals each year. To determine which types of wildlife are at risk of being snuffed out by Kitty, a crew of cats will wear GPS tracking collars. Their roaming range will be displayed on map overlays. One U.S. blogger who tried that method said the results looked like his 5-year-old son’s crayon scribbling.
The study will proceed even though some nature advocates say there’s no real problem and that the little creatures would have died of natural causes anyway.
As for Finn, the border collie isn’t chasing cheetahs, but leading Cheetah Conservation Fund researchers in Namibia to places where they left their mark. Why? According to Philly.com, each location is…
“…recorded with a GPS device and it’s then collected. Geneticists analyze the samples to determine what the cheetahs have eaten and can extract DNA to identify individual cats, helping determine each cheetah’s range.”
Raised in Philadelphia and trained in Seattle, Finn will stay in Namibia to, uh, carry out his life’s work. His reward for each successful find: a ball and a toy.
A few random thoughts on all of the above:
- If nothing else, the cats’ traffic patterns should make for interesting graphics. They’d probably fit right in as “refrigerator art.”
- While Finn is setting a stellar example for dogs that chase cats, it might be more interesting to put a GPS tracking device on the cheetah. Then we could track exactly how speedy the world’s fastest land animal really is.
Nice to see that GPS fleet tracking technology has trickled down to the feline and canine worlds. However, if you need to track anything on wheels from big cats to dogcatcher trucks, we’ve got your animal instincts covered. See how it works.
Tags: GPS animal tracking, GPS fleet tracking, GPS Fleet Tracking Benefits, GPS Tracking -Other Uses, GPS tracking unit
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