How 'wearables for wildlife' are unlocking the secret knowledge of animals

CBC

28-02-2025

A mini-cellphone on a goat's ear. A little backpack on a bird. A Fitbit on a whale.
Scientists have a range of cute descriptions for the technology in The Secret Knowledge of Animals, a documentary from The Nature of Things. But the data provided by these small tracking devices, placed on a range of species all over the world, is revealing big things about what humans have witnessed for millennia but could never observe at this level — that animals can sense and predict things we cannot.
And now, we can watch in real time.
The tracking devices capture information about thousands of animals and their movements using GPS — and even video, sound and water temperature in some cases. Billions of data points are transmitted into space to a 10-by-10-centimetre receiver attached to a satellite about the size of a briefcase.
The project is called the International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space, also known as ICARUS. All the data is published in Movebank, a free online database anyone can access. And since 2012, over 1,400 species have been entered, from elephants to butterflies.
"These findings will aid behavioural research, species protection and research into the paths taken in the spread of infectious diseases," the ICARUS website says. "The information should even help to predict ecological changes and natural disasters."
With ICARUS, scientists are learning what animals know, how they know it and what humans can learn from it.
'We can't really grasp it'
After natural disasters, stories often surface about goats appearing to sense a volcanic eruption or cows seeming uneasy long before an earthquake.
By then, however, it's too late — the event has already happened.
One of many applications of ICARUS is to use animal behaviour to predict these events, says Martin Wikelski, biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and founder of ICARUS.
"[Animals] smell better. They hear better. They see better. They have ultrasound," he says in the documentary. "All of that combined is often what we call the sixth sense of animals because we can't really grasp it."
Animals' sensory abilities often exceed our own, giving them a picture of the planet we can't see. The tracking devices — dubbed "wearables for wildlife" — and the resulting wealth of data are akin to giving humans predictive superpowers.
Previous technology can't predict an earthquake — it can only warn people before seismic waves reach an area. And those warnings only come anywhere from a few seconds to more than a minute before the shaking begins.
These goats know when a volcano is about to erupt – way before humans do
8 days ago
Duration 1:50
Martin Wikelski and his colleagues studied the behaviour of goats prior to eight major volcanic eruptions at Mount Etna in Italy. Several hours before any sign of volcanic activity, nearby animals fled their pastures and headed down the mountain. Learn more in The Secret Knowledge of Animals, now streaming on CBC Gem and The Nature of Things YouTube channel.
"If we look only at the seismic signals, we understand a very little part of the story," volcanologist Boris Behncke says in the film.
At Mount Etna, Wikelski and his colleagues were able to measure the movements of goats and sheep, which accurately predicted major volcanic eruptions — several hours in advance. Given the lives that could be saved, the benefits of ICARUS are clear.
"If your cow can give you information about an earthquake," he says, "this is a major change in our understanding, in our relationship, with animals."
Saving species and the planet
The ambitions of ICARUS reach beyond predicting disasters and saving human lives.
For example, the documentary shows applications for thwarting poachers in Kruger National Park in South Africa.
The renowned park spans nearly two million hectares, an expanse that's almost impossible to safeguard against illegal hunters seeking to slaughter elephants for their tusks and rhinos for their horns.
But tracking animal movement revealed something fascinating: animals such as giraffes and impalas react differently to a human poacher than they do to an animal predator, like a lion.
As the animals flee the poacher, data shows them scattering across the park. Their flight response essentially becomes an early alarm system, so rangers can zero in on poaching attempts.
"I think my biggest worry would be that we're losing animals before we even know what they can tell us, before we communicate with them, before we can understand the amazing abilities they have," Wikelski says. "Because once we understand that, we will do everything to protect them."
Another early alarm system: the behaviour of whales.
With her team from Dalhousie University, marine biologist Sarah Fortune has been attaching suction-cup "biologgers" to four whale species. These tracking devices use GPS, video, sound and temperature and can record dive profiles, acceleration, changes in the Earth's magnetic field and the pitch and roll of the whales.
"If you know where the whales are feeding and spending their time, you can get a better sense for the risks that they face from entanglement or ship strikes," Fortune says in the documentary.
Protecting whales from harm runs parallel to another massive opportunity presented by this data — understanding our environment.
"We know the Gulf Stream is changing, currents are changing, the oceans are warming as well," Fortune says. "The whales are going to mirror those changes. So they're kind of an indicator of climate change. In a sense, right whales are the canaries of the ocean."
A 'golden era for biology'
"We are at the beginning of a new era — a golden era — for biology," Wikelski says.
"All these animals tell us different things about the world. And by tracking them, we can learn so much. Where are diseases hiding? Where are the next natural disasters occurring? How is the weather? How is the climate? Where are interactions between humans and animals? Where do we have to protect animals? All of those things, animals can tell us."
ICARUS is helping us understand our present and future beyond anything possible before.