Tegan Carpenter-Kling

Dear Nate, This is a very good question and I am glad you have asked it. It is the exact reason for my crowdfunding campaign to fund very expensive GPS tracking devices and the reason why the distribution of many seabird species outside of the breeding season is still unknown. From the links below, I gather that the ‘data loggers’ you are referring, is any device that you need to retrieve in order to download the data and that data may be GPS, depth, temperature etc. These devices are of course cheaper (but not by much) than the loggers I am proposing to buy. We, within the Seabird Conservation Programme at BirdLife South Africa and other scientists, use these data loggers extensively to track breeding seabirds. We track breeding seabirds this way because we know that they will return to their nest to incubate or care for young and therefore we can get our data loggers back and download the data. For the project I am trying to raise funds for on the website ‘Experiment’, we are attempting to track non-breeding birds. These birds do not return to their nest regularly and may only return the following year to breed again or in the case of many seabirds, in two years’ time. During this period between breeding seasons, the birds also moult and replace all of their feathers. It is therefore impossible or highly unlikely that you will ever get a logger from a non-breeding seabird because it will fall off before you see the bird again. This is why we need loggers that are able to send the data to us. I hope I have answered your question and put your mind at ease. Please let me know if you have anymore questions or comments. Warm Regards, Tegan