Where will this Snowy Owl spend the summer? Will it return next winter? New transmitters are helping to provide answers to these questions, and many more (photo by Paul Konrad).

An exciting new generation of transmitters that allows researchers to track Snowy Owls and other large birds year-round, anywhere in the world, was implemented by Project SNOWstorm January 28. This new transmitter is brand new for wildlife telemetry studies as a whole – it’s the world’s first hybrid GSM-Argos satellite transmitter, produced by Cellular Tracking Technologies (CTT). The first Snowy Owl fitted with the new transmitter has a second channel for communication through the Argos satellite system in tandem with the GSM cellular network that utilizes cell towers similar to cellphones.

The transmitters used during the past five years by Project SNOWstorm collect GPS locations and report them over the GSM cell network, which allows biologists to collect huge amounts of data at a very low cost. But it also means that when the owl is beyond the cellular network, no data is relayed until the owl comes back into cell range. If the owl remains outside the grid, we have no way of knowing where it is, and whether or not it’s alive.

CTT is the only manufacturer making the hybrid GSM-Argos transmitters, and Snowy Owls are only the second species, after Canada Geese, to carry one of these hybrid transmitters, which will permit Project SNOWstorm to track and study the movements of their newest transmitter-carrying Snowy Owl year-round.

For more information about this impressive new transmitter, you can refer to https://celltracktech.com/products/argos-satellite/gsm-argos-hybrid/ and for reference to its use by Project Snowstorm, see https://www.projectsnowstorm.org/posts/otter-the-hybrid-owl/