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March 18 2022
By Siobhan Darlington The Southern BC Cougar project team had the incredible opportunity to conduct a day of fieldwork by helicopter thanks to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. We started our day at the Penticton airport and took off flying transects across the West Okanagan study area down towards Keremeos. Our objective for the day was to scan for the VHF frequencies of 3 offline cougars, C6, C16 and C1. Their collars stopped transmitting GPS locations prematurely, however the radio signal continues to function and can be detected using a handheld receiver and antenna. While we normally drive roads and scan for cougars on the ground, flying high above the cougar's territory and scanning from a helicopter is much more efficient to pick up a signal. We input the collar frequencies and listen for the sound of methodical beeps - the louder it gets, the closer we are.
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Authors
The authors are Southern BC Cougar Project team members & volunteers. Past Blog Entries
September 2023
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