Friday, August 01, 2008

Tracking Animals in Google Maps

White Tailed Eagles
screenshot of RSPB site

The RSPB are tracking two white tailed eagle chicks on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. The white-tailed eagle is the largest UK bird of prey and the two chicks are called Mara and Breagha. It is also possible to follow the chicks on Google Earth.

Seaturtle.org
screen shot of seaturtle.org
Despite the name, Seaturtle.org are tracking a whole host of animals on Google Maps. The map tracks a number of birds, mammals, reptiles and even a whale shark.

World on the Move
screen shot of the world on the move website
The BBC are continuing their efforts to track African Elephants, Alaskan Bar-tailed Godwits, Atlantic Salmon, Brent Geese, Common Toads, European Eels, and Gray Whale. The BBC Google Map relies on both GPS tags and on user sightings. The map includes a time-line, which allows users to view the movements of the animals over the year.

Greenpeace Google Maps Whale Tracking Map (dead link removed)

Greenpeace is using Google Maps and satellite tracking tags on endangered whales in the Southern Pacific Ocean to follow the current locations of the whales. The Great Whale Trail mash-up is an interesting way for anyone to track patterns of whale migration and learn just exactly where and how far they go in a certain period of time.

Deer Tracking
This map show the movements of a white tailed deer in the suburbs of Pennsylvania. The map's creator believes that the map is the first email to map tracker created using entirely free web services.



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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The elephants are making me think why google doesn't provide use this resolution everywhere. Would'nt it be nice to wander around africa (or wherever!) to explore other continents yourselves. This sharp imagery of just a couple animals is showing us that we are only allowed to see what some people are tagging as free information. Sounds almost like china these days!
(Nice views though ;-)

Anonymous said...

These are some Great Resources! Thank you for sharing.

Rebecca Haden said...

Those elephants are photographs from National Geographic, not what all of Google Earth would look like if it weren't blurred. You can actually see lots of photos that people have added to Google Earth. Use the "layers" and "gallery" features to find more -- or add your own.