In the field stories

Tracking cuckoos from space – building the Animal Internet

The Animal Internet: “decoding the intelligence of global animal behaviour”, to help protect animals and humans. Scientists describe it as a quantum leap for ecology and behavioural science, similar to what happened in genetics in the mid-90’s with the launch of the human genome project.

A significant addition to this impressive data infrastructure is Project Icarus: In August 2018 Russian cosmonauts put a high-performance antenna into operation on the International Space Station. Now the data loop involves not only cuckoos but also the ISS, its command control centre in Moscow and an international database called Movebank, located in Germany. Movebank collects animal observation data from all over the globe and makes it available to researchers internationally. Watch the video to see how the project operates:

Curious to read how German NREN DFN is involved? Read the full story on the In The Field Blog.

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