ICARUS Initiative: ‘Internet of Animals’ and a possible early warning system
The speedy expansion for sensor technologies has helped generate data from almost everything that exists, even from wild animals. This makes it possible for researchers to study on unique fields. Today’s post is about such study, a space-based tracking technology project that offers researchers a biological lens at a near-global scale. ICARUS (International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space), led by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. The project aims to track the natural behaviors of birds, bats, turtles, goats, cows, bears, whales and more, and uses a network of wearable sensors on animals (not weigh more than 3–5% of the animal’s body mass, to avoid affecting the natural behavior of them) to transmit on-the-ground data to the International Space Station. The main goal of this project is to build a global network of animals, called the ‘internet of animals’, that can tell how ecosystems change and how animals respond to these changes. They consider that it would be done by combining data from the wildlife wearables with other data on animal behaviors across space, time, and different environments.
A scientific team headed by Martin Wikelski from the institute is currently working on a type of early warning system based on the solid sense abilities of animals. They have conducted several scientific studies in this regard. For example, they focused on cows, sheep, and dogs in an earthquake-prone area in Northern Italy and recorded their movements over several months via attached sensors. The movement data showed that the animals showed unusual movements hours before the earthquakes. The closer the animals were to the epicenter of the upcoming quake, the earlier they started behaving unusually.
The researchers also attached sensors to goats living around Mount Etna, recorded the animals’ movements over several years, and retrospectively compared the animals’ movement profiles with volcanic activity. The moment arrived on 4 January, and Mount Etna began actively erupting. The researchers recorded unusual activity among the goats six hours before this eruption. The research team predicted seven significant eruptions based on movement data during the study, which lasted for two years.
Within this project’s scope, there are similar studies in progress, such as tracking the spread of infectious diseases, climate changes, and threatened species. And last but not least, they believe that there are many things to learn from the behavior of animals.
[1] Elke Maier. A Four Legged Early Warning System. Available: https://www.icarus.mpg.de/11706/a-four-legged-early-warning-system
[2] Martin Wikelski and others. Potential short-term earthquake forecasting by farm-animal monitoring. 2020. Available: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eth.13078
