High-tech 206 animals to be tracked as part of $750,000 study By JOHN YOUNG SMITHERS — A crew of airborne animal catchers is about to take off and net Northwest wildlife. It’s the key part of a multi-year inventory study ~-- the largest and most expensive of its kind ever un- dertaken in the region. Cranbrook-based Bighorn Helicopters has been contracted by BC Environment to capture and fix radio collars — some of them equipped with high-tech satellite tracking devices — to 206 animals in’ Skeena, including caribou, moose and wolves in the Cassiar. It’s the first time that moose and wolves have been involved in a large-scale collaring study, says Rick Marshall, a Smithers wildlife biologist for BC Environment who's coordinating the project. The study will collect information on habitat; ihigration routes and winter ranges — all of which needs to be understood before full-scale logging begins in the Cassiar. But it’s also expected to give wildlife managers a wealth of wild- life information on birth rates, mortality and reproduction, Mar- Shall says. **This far exceeds anything we've ever done in the past — by far.” The work is being paid for out of a $750,000 grant from Forest Renewal B.C. Riding the point of this large- scale effort is Clay Wilson, owner of Bighorn Helicopters. He and a crew are scheduled to fly a Hughes 500 helicopter into the Liard River area on the B.C. Yukon border this week, depending on weather. He says minus 20 C is ‘‘ideal”’ for the work, but his crew will work at minus 30. This time out they'll fix collars ta 30 caribou, 40 moose and 25 wolves, receiving $750 for cach animal. The helicopter operation works like this: Once they target an animal for collaring, they track it close to the ground and separate it from the herd, A door is popped and a har- nessed ‘‘gunner’’ steps onto the strut, aims a net gun and shoots from about three metres. . Immediately the machine sets fe. collars tr WILDUFE BIOLOGIST Rick Marshall of the B.C. Environment's Skeena wildlife branch in Smithers is one of the workers who will be collaring local wildlife. The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 15, 1997 - AS ack critters down and a ‘‘mugger”’ jumps out to ‘‘wrastle” the snagged animal, Wilson says. ‘The average chase lasts about five to 10 seconds.” Once the animal is secure, blood is drawn for DNA aad pregnancy tests, and a radio collar is fixed. It’s all over in less than 15 minuics with no drugs. ; Although it’s the first time moose have been live netted in the region ona large scale, Wilson docsn’t ex- pect any trouble. ‘We've done six-point bull elks before in the Kootenays and they're reasonably similar to moose,” he says. In the wildtife capture business for 15 years, Wilson’s company transported wolves from Canada to restock Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming over the last two years. Although most of the collars are ‘high-frequency radio versions, 10 are equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS collars can be programmed to take up to cight satellite ‘‘hits’’ a day at any time for up to two years, fixing the animal’s cxaci position, the temperature and even whether its head is up or down (feeding). ‘After about three months there’s so much information thal you have to go out and find it,’? Marshall says. That's not a big problem because all the data can be downloaded remotely using a radio transmitter built into the collar. ‘We can go out in a plane with the command unit, contact it, send out a signal telling it to give us all the information.’’ The device can also be reprogrammed to change the num- ber of hits per day — all from up to 10,000 feet in the air. Once back in the office, data col- lected in the command unit is downloaded inlo researchers’ com- puters. “Tt’s really state-of-the-art,” Marshall says. And it comes with a deluxe pricetag: $10,00 per collar. Five moose and five caribou will be fitted with the devices in the Cassiar, while a single moose will get one in the Tweedsmuir areca south of Bums Lake. That singie collar will be paid for by BC En- vironment, Houston Forest Produc- ts and Wildlife for the Future. Understanding and operating the high-lech collars has proved chal- lenging; Marshall says. Late last year stalf inadvertently hooked up the expensive balleries powering the units and put the collars on the shelf, thinking the devices were off, In fact, they began running as soon as the batteries were installed and wenl flat within a few weeks, New batteries had to be bought. Marshall also isn’t sure if the GPS collars will be large enough for northern moose and caribou, Thal. won’! be known until field op- erations begin. ue at yte ee News in Brief Attempted abduction A WOMAN narrowly escaped abduction last week when an unknown man tried to force her into his car, Police say that at about 6 p.m. January 9, a young woman told them she was approached by an unidentified Native male. The man told her to get into his car. When she refused, police say he physically tried to pull her into the vehicle. The man was unsuccessful. He fled in a medium- sized bluc, four-door car. The male is described as short and stocky, wearing dark clothes. His hair was short.on.the sides with longer, slicked back hair.on top. Police are secking ‘assistance from the general public with any information in identifying the man involved. If you can help, call Terrace RCMP or Crimestoppers. Dope dealers nabbed APPARENTLY DRUG users in this city don’t read the newspaper, In spite of recent coverage describing absent-minded people attempting (o buy drugs from their dealers dur- ing police raids, users continue to approach cops in the middle of house searches, That’s what happened last Thursday when cops raided a residence on Kalum Street. Police uncovered a substantial number of marihuana joints valued at over $504), as well as related trafficking paraphernaiia. Two men were taken into custody, and charges of possession of a narcolic for the purposes of Irafficking are pending on a third. Police say they were shocked at the number of people who altempted to buy drugs while the RCMP were conducting the search, kkakk ANOTHER TERRACE drug dealer was arrested {ast week after police raided his home and uncovered some mariana and related materials, Police say the January 8 search of the man’s Thom- hill home was conducted by investigators from the Ter- race RCMP Drug Unit with assistance from General Duty personnel and the police dog unil. RCMP seized a quantity of marihuana with a street value of approximately $1,000. Also seized were several items of narcolics paraphernalia related to the uafficking of marihuana, and about $600 in cash. One adult mate was arrested. Police say the evidence seized supports a charge of possession of a narcolic for the purposes of trafficking, and formal charges are pending, The arrested male has since been reteased with a court appearance set for late February. CHP leader speaks here RON GRAY, leader of the federal Christian Heritage Party, will be in Terrace on Jan. 18 to speak about the parly’s platform and the upcoming federal election, ex- pected to be sometime this year. There are aboul 230 CHP members in this riding, and they hope to announce a candidate for the election at the meeting. " Gray will be speaking at 8 p.m. at the Elks Hall, Ad- Anission is free. .