Replacing worn-out batteries in animal tracking devices can be a time-consuming, expensive duty for wildlife scientists. It’s stressful for the animals, too. Now, researchers have invented a tracker powered by the animals’ own movement.
Replacing worn-out batteries in animal tracking devices can be a time-consuming, expensive duty for wildlife scientists. It’s stressful for the animals, too. Now, inspired by the technology behind a self-charging smartwatch, researchers have invented a tracker powered by the animals’ own movement. The approach could help researchers monitor animals across their entire life spans, making things easier for both the scientists and the creatures they follow.
Many wildlife trackers are solar-powered. These don’t work for nocturnal creatures or for animals that live in the water, Sun-blocking forests, or caves, such as pandas, tigers, and sea lions. Nonrechargeable lithium-ion batteries—heralded by manufacturers as lasting for decades—are another option, but field experience shows very hot or cold temperatures considerably shorten their life spans.
Watching the dogs run across the dry savannas of southern Asia, the pair wondered whether it was possible to convert that running energy into electrical power. Rasmus Worsøe Havmøller learned researchers had already developed prototypes for tracking devices powered by the vibrations of an animal’s movement, but these were too bulky to be used for most species. However, he also discoveredthat converts the wearer’s movement into an electromagnetic current that powers the device.
“Suddenly we actually had the device to deliver power, and suddenly we had the device to store the power,” Rasmus Worsøe Havmøller says.
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