Tracking Owls By Ella Jiao Why Track Owls

Tracking Owls By Ella Jiao

Why Track Owls? There are many reasons scientists are tracking owls right now. The two main reasons are 1) So everyone can learn about owl behaviors, and 2) So we can identify a problem and find a way to help. You can go to the following website to learn more about tracking snowy owls and the data to it. http: //www. projectsnowstorm. org/

HOW? !? Well, the main way right now is banding, but the reason more people are using the backpacks is because if you put a band on a great-horned owl in Minnesota, then find it again in Michigan in three years, you have no idea where it went during those years. It could’ve been to Hawaii for all you know. But you do know that great-horned owl is still alive. The backpacks for snowy’s are solar-powered, so they use renewable energy. The problem is, most owls are nocturnal! So, they had to use regular batteries.

Problems… There are many problems with the technology project snowstorm and many other owl tracking projects use. First of all, the “backpacks” are very expensive. They are about $3, 000 a piece! Once the scientist buy about 6 of them, they have spent as much money needed to buy a small car! Another problem is that the batteries in the backpacks are going to eventually break, or run out of energy. But, if they made the batteries solarpowered, the batteries couldn’t charge! The next major problem is that people can use the information to hunt or capture the owls. As Ms. Kerry said, project snowstorm had to change their schedules from posting the data everyday to every three weeks. The last big problem is the weight. Would you like to wear a backpack 24 -7? Wouldn’t that be uncomfortable? Even though they aren’t too heavy, the extra weight would still weigh them down.

IDEA!!! We thought of the idea to make wind-powered backpacks for all owls to use. If we could make a lightweight, tiny, windpowered battery, that would be great! Our dreams can be made into reality because two people invented “tiny turbines”! For the backpack issue, we could make it something else, too. Then the owls wouldn’t have to suffer the burden of textbooks and binders dragging down their backs like we do. I would hate to make them have to go through school all over again.