Technology wish lists and the significance of temperature-sensing wildlife telemetry

Abstract

Telemetry has revolutionized studies in wildlife biology, ecology, physiology, and conservation. With the increased demand for telemetry, new technology has made great strides to enable long studies in harsh and remote areas on a wide variety of study species. As the climate crisis continues to impact animals, temperature-sensing telemetry has become a helpful technique for understanding the effects of climate change and how to protect wildlife from them. However, temperature-sensing telemetry and telemetry in general still pose technological challenges and accessibility issues for the researchers who use it. Currently available telemetry technology is expensive, too large and heavy for many study species, and cannot measure all variables researchers want to study. These technological improvements have especially been neglected for temperature-sensing telemetry, which may be underutilized given the current climate crisis. To understand why innovation has stalled, and where it should be directed going forward, we gathered opinions from researchers who use telemetry and from manufacturers that create and supply telemetry equipment. Our goal was to broadly describe the current technological landscape, compare it to what we envision for the future, and make suggestions for how to reach that future.