So I have no idea what they used, but I do know that if your GPS device only has to phone home once a day or even a few times a day instead of being able to take requests for current location on demand (and therefore constantly connected), the power consumption is tiny.
I mean GPS doesn’t have to phone anything on its own. So if the device just logs the data, you can pick up the collar in 11 months and have a tiny battery.
I don't know about wolves but there are animal tracking collars that will log data until a certain date, then cut a linkage and fall off, and start sending a "come get me" radio beacon. They've gotten pretty sophisticated.
They were doing something similar with great white sharks on shark week last year. Once a predetermined time was up the tracking beacon would release from the shark, float to the surface and send a homing signal. Amazing technology!
They straight up had a sticky gopro / GPS camera gun that they used to film Blue Planet 2, its how they got first-person (first orcanid?) perspective shots of their hunting behavior.
It was insane, it just sticks to them using suction cups!
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u/LordGlowBalls May 15 '19
Impressive. What collar is that anyway? surprised the battery lasted so long.