Canada's Military Studying Effects of Noise on Wildlife

Source: Melissa Leong, National Post

The Canadian military will be deploying caribou collars and mock birds' eggs equipped with sophisticated monitors to make sure aircraft noise does not disturb the creatures.

The Goose Bay military base in Labrador is planning to broaden its training exercises to include jet fighters hurtling at supersonic speeds, exposing migrating caribou herds and other species for the first time to sonic booms.

To better study the effects of aircraft noise on animals, the Department of National Defence hired Idaho-based TenXsys Inc. to develop the new technology.

The caribou collars register noise and motion and transmit the data to researchers via satellite. The collars are equipped with GPS indicators and a remote-release mechanism.

"These collars measure the sound at the animal. With accelerometers, we detect when the animal becomes agitated and moves," said Frank Riskey, president of TenXsys.

The company has also developed plastic eggs in three different sizes to place in osprey, eagle and goose nests. The dummy eggs will measure sound and, most importantly, temperature.

"Do the birds leave the nests too long and the eggs cool?" producing a mortality as the result of the sound, Mr. Riskey asked.

"This is going to open up all kinds of environmental study possibilities. We've had contacts from all over the world, people asking things like, 'What's the effect of road noise on birds?' " Mr. Riskey said.