Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Bad news again

Hi all,

I am afraid to tell you that the transmitter of Sinbad is very probably sending from the very same spot since quite some time. It's David Douglas who gave me the hint to check the activity sensor of the bird and indeed, the activity sensor is not showing any activity anymore. This means that a) the bird is dead but the transmitter is still exposed to the sun and is therefore still sending signals (and the movements we saw is just a dispersion of ARGOS errors) or b) the bird lost the transmitter and the device is lying on the ground, exposed to the sun.

I am really sorry but very obviously we will not be able to follow the spring migration of Sinbad!!!

4 comments:

  1. Shame! I guess no one on this blog knows anyone living near this place. These things are hard to find in the wild (especially without some electronic gadgetry), but I'd put up a reward for its recovery. Marion, wanna check with P-fund? They might have someone they can contact, though it is far from Tana and its hard to get around Madagascar even in the best of times.

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  2. What a sad news really
    We hoped to see the path of return to Oman..

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  3. yes, it's really sad. I'll try with people from NGOs in Madagascar. Maybe Asity can be of help. But as Mike says, it's a challenge to get a transmitter back from the wild. I'd just like to know what happened to this bird. The transmitter which was returned to me still had the harness attached. No signs of degeneration, the teflon is in a perfect condition. So my guess is that Sinbad died, too. I don't believe that the transmitter fell off because it was chewing on the harness or tried to get rid of it...

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