Bonn, 11 November 2015 – A side event on a New Global Earth Observation System for Small Animals – ICARUS* and Movebank, was held on the first day of AEWA MOP6 by Martin Wikelski, the Director of the German Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell and a Professor at the University of Konstanz.

One of the key issues for the protection of migratory animals, including waterbirds is to understand the connectivity between habitats, the sites being used by the birds along their migration across the continents.

“As the basis for decision for AEWA, you really need to know what these individual birds are doing out there, like storks, ducks, shore birds, all these species that depend on waterbodies or shore lines for their survival”, said Martin Wikelski.

Unfortunately, for many species that move or migrate, especially the small ones, this information is not yet available. Funded by the DLR (German Aeronautics and Space Research Centre), a new global observation system is being established that allows the communication of information from small sensors attached to animals globally.

“We need to understand what life is doing on the planet before understanding what black holes are doing in the universe”, he added.

Researchers and the public will have access to almost real time animal movements and vital data on their smartphones. Thus, the observation and protection of animals can become a global citizen science project. At the same time, data from animals can be mined for information about global change or natural catastrophes – or even make prediction on migrations possible, while helping to provide the base for policy decisions relating to the conservation of migratory animals.

*ICARUS, short for “International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space”, is a global collaboration of animal scientists to establish a satellite-based infrastructure for earth observation of small objects such as migratory birds, bats, or sea turtles.

Movebank (https://www.movebank.org/) is an international online database for animal movement created to help researchers share and analyze their animal tracking data. One of the leaders of the Movebank project is Martin Wikelski.