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By Greg Bartlett

Though efforts have been made to monitor golden eagles before, they have not been successful. According to a United Kingdom project report in late July 2009, a young golden eagle, equipped with GPS tracking, has just left his parents’ nest to make his way in the world. Little has been known of how young golden eagles live and develop once out on their own. With this project, students and amateur and professional scientists alike hope to better understand the behaviors of young eagles. GPS tracking is making this possible.

Global navigational satellite systems (GNSS), such as the United States’ Global Position System (GPS), use satellites to communicate with a GPS receiver to precisely locate the GPS receiver. These ‘tracks,’ of sorts (or records of locations), can be reported remotely and recorded in as great a detail and at as great a frequency as desired. This amazing twenty-first century tool was first developed during World War II for United States Air Force. Today, people of many different walks of life use GPS tracking to locate and monitor a seemingly infinite number of different subjects. While a scientist may use GPS tracking to locate a particular animal in the wild, a business owner may us it to monitor his vehicles and equipment. Families are using GPS tracking today to find lost pets and rescue lost family members.

A GPS tracking device has been fastened to this young golden eagle in order to study its behaviors and better understand how young eagles adjust to living out on their own. This has been a mystery for scientists for quite some time. The scientists will receive periodic six-hour reports through this GPS tracking system. They hope with this information to unlock the young golden eagle’ world and better understand how young eagles make this major transition from their parents’ nest to living on their own.