KuzeyDoğa Derneği

 

Wolves are being tracked for the first time in Turkey by KuzeyDoga Society thanks to a collaboration with the Turkcell company and the Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks of the Ministry of Forestry and Hydraulic Works. Cutting edge GPS/GSM/UHG/VHF transmitting collars were placed on the wolves that are among the most difficult animals to be caught and these transmitters send the coordinates of the wolves as SMS messages by using Turkcell’s network.

For the first time in Turkey, wolves are being tracked thanks to a collaboration between KuzeyDoga Society, Turkey’s leading technology and communications company Turkcell, and the Directorate of Nature Conservation and Natural Parks Ministry of Forestry and Hydraulic Works. Two remote-tracking collars were put on two healthy wolves caught by the KuzeyDoga team in the Sarikamis-Allahuekber Mountains National Park of Kars. The collared wolves were named “Kuzey” and “Doga”. The transmitters on the collars use a Turkcell SIM card to regularly send their GPS coordinates as SMS messages to KuzeyDoga’s scientists by using Turkcell’s wide network coverage. The transmitters have the latest GPS/GSM/UHF/VHF technology, obviating the need for satellite transmitters. The wolves can be tracked “near real-time” with the detailed data obtained from the transmitters. If needed, the transmitters can send the locations of the wolves as SMS messages every hour to either KuzeyDoga president and University of Utah biology professor Dr. Cagan Sekercioglu or to KuzeyDoga’s science coordinator and biologist Emrah Coban.

 

The vice president of Turkcell Company Mr. Koray Ozturkler stated that “Turkcell has the best mobile communication infrastructure in Turkey. Besides providing the best service for our customers, we can support many social responsibility projects by using our network infrastructure. Turkey is an important biodiversity hotspot and is rich in wildlife. We want to conserve Turkey’s wildlife and pass it on to future generations. For realizing this project, I am very thankful to KuzeyDoga Society and the Directorate of Nature Conservation and Natural Parks of the Ministry of Forestry and Hydraulic Works”.

 

KuzeyDoğa president and University of Utah biology professor Dr. Cagan Sekercioglu, one of the most cited 1% scientists of the past decade, Turkey’s 2010 Scientist of Year, and 2011 National Geographic Emerging Explorer said, “We have been carrying out wildlife research, nature conservation and ecological research projects in eastern Anatolia since 2001. I focused on the rich biodiversity of northeastern Turkey in 2003 and established KuzeyDoga Society in 2007. As top predators that control prey populations and also prey on livestock, wolves are very important parts of Anatolian ecosystems. Turkey’s first wolf tracking project will study the movements and home ranges of these wolves, their habitat use in different seasons throughout the year, their behavior and prey base, and how the wolves interact with humans and livestock. With these critical data, collected for the first time in Turkey, we also hope to reduce the ever-present human-wolf conflict in the region. One of the world’s top wolf specialists, Professor Dr. Josip Kusak from the University of Zagreb Department of Veterinary Science came to Kars and worked together with the KuzeyDoga team since mid-September. Our team spent five full weeks in the field and succeeded in capturing wolves in the fall, not the best season for catching wolves. In addition to, capturing, collaring, and tracking wolves, we also documented footprints, scat samples and other signs of wolves in the national park. The preparation for this very detailed and labor-intensive project took over two years, the last four months of which were very busy with the purchase, preparation, and practice of the highly specialized equipment needed to catch and collar the wolves. Thanks to the professional and dedicated expertise of Prof. Kusak, two wolves were captured safely on October 7 and October 11, fitted with transmitters and released in excellent health. Since then, each wolf has walked more than 300 km, covering every corner of Sarikamis-Allahuekber Mountains National Park, and spending much of their time outside the park boundaries in deforested areas. Because of the small size 

(230 km²) of this national park, its inadequacy for the wide-ranging carnivores (wolves, bears, and lynx) found there and for the long-term viability of their populations, three years ago I proposed to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (now Forestry and Hydraulic Works) to create Turkey’s first wildlife corridor, in order to connect this isolated national park to the extensive forests of Posof, Georgia, Black Sea and Caucasus mountains. Following the request of Turkey’s Minister of Forestry and Hydraulic Works Dr Veysel Eroglu, in spring 2011, officials from the Directorate of Reforestation and Erosion Control and the KuzeyDoga team together prepared a detailed map of Turkey’s first wildlife corridor. In May 2011, KuzeyDoga team and ministry officials spent two weeks in the field, checking and ground-truthing the corridor route in the provinces of Erzurum, Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin. By tracking wolves daily, the habitat use, home range size and movement data we are collecting are critical for improving the scientific foundation of Turkey’s first wildlife corridor and will shape its creation.”