Posted on 08/25/2002 6:08:17 AM PDT by blam
Satellite trackers find Kerry the goose in Eskimo freezer
British conservationists are mourning the loss of Kerry the goose after tracking him by satellite all the way from Ireland to an Eskimo's kitchen in Arctic Canada.
He was found by researchers who tracked the beeps from a £3,000 transmitter on his back to a hunter's home on remote Cornwallis Island.
Kerry was one of six light-bellied Brent Geese being followed on their 4,500-mile migration by the British-based Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.
Senior research officer Dr James Robinson said: "We have some Canadian colleagues in an area called Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island who have a small receiver which can pick up the birds' signals.
"Hearing that the last place Kerry was known to be was Cornwallis Island, they decided to see if they could find him.
"They looked in all the fjords and lakes where Brent Geese go, but had no success at all. Then as they were walking back into town, their receiver started beeping more strongly.
"They tracked the beeps to a house, knocked on the door, and discovered that the guy who lived there had shot Kerry on another island called Bathurst Island.
"Kerry was in the hunter's freezer. He hadn't been plucked and the transponder was still on him. The hunter was somewhat surprised - he didn't know what the device on the goose's back was.
"He was a bit reluctant to co-operate to start with, but when the project was explained to him he was happy to help."
The researchers fitted the geese with transmitters to find out the exact route which they take from Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, in April to Canada's Arctic wilderness where they rear young before returning for the winter in September.
Story filed: 05:47 Sunday 25th August 2002
Thunderbirds?
5.56mm
ps: Geese have become a fairly major nuisance in our area.They stopped migrating south about 10 years ago, and, in some areas ( especially where people are trying to walk ), it's almost impossible to thread your way through the "minefields" unscathed !
For added amusement, strategically attach the transmitter to your boss's car and wait for the feathers to fly. Fun for the whole family.
Global warming! Global warming!
(Just kidding. But just wait for someone who isn't.)
For even more fun attach it to a long-distance truck. Watch for news that geese use the highways to navigate.
a.cricet
I'll give him $10.00 for the transmitter.
Actually, I'd like to ship one somewhere via airfreight.
"Sir, we're tracking one goose traveling east at 38,000 feet and 435 knots and he's just been cleared into Heathrow!"
If he'd been eaten by a polar bear, then they'd have known that Kerry had fulfilled his destiny in the food chain.
Well, it wasn't a bear, but a human. To Kerry, very little difference.
sigh, another disappointment
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