{"id":742062,"date":"2025-04-01T19:59:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T02:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=742062"},"modified":"2025-04-01T16:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T23:51:13","slug":"real-time-data-feeds-of-bighorn-sheep-locations-protect-motorists-and-animals","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/real-time-data-feeds-of-bighorn-sheep-locations-protect-motorists-and-animals","title":{"rendered":"Real-Time Data Feeds of Bighorn Sheep Locations Protect Motorists and Animals"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[477142,422802,1021],"tags":[17662,163382,311,111,279602],"arcnews_issues":[491792],"class_list":["post-742062","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arcgis-velocity","category-conservation","category-transportation","tag-3d","tag-arcgis-online","tag-data-driven","tag-real-time","tag-wildlife","arcnews_issues-spring-2025","arcnews_sections-your-work"],"acf":{"short_description":"With solar-powered GPS collars and ArcGIS Velocity, a 3D monitoring system tracks where the animals do and don\u2019t cross roads in Nebraska.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"In the United States, about one in every 128 drivers each year will collide with a wild animal, causing more than $8 billion in damages, according to the US Department of Transportation.\r\n\r\nSafeguarding people and wildlife along transportation corridors is crucial, but it requires having precise information about wildlife crossing locations. This is why the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, in collaboration with the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT), joined forces with industry leader and Esri partner VECTRONIC Aerospace for an innovative wildlife study. The project team used VECTRONIC Aerospace\u2019s solar-powered GPS collars in conjunction with ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Velocity to create a real-time 3D monitoring system that tracked where bighorn sheep were\u2014and weren\u2019t\u2014crossing roads."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":742072,"image_position":"right","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Protecting Bighorn Sheep and Motorists<\/h2>\r\nTo help reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife, NDOT received a federal grant from the US Department of Transportation\u2019s Federal Highway Administration to engage in construction and nonconstruction projects (such as fixing fencing) that would protect both motorists and wildlife. The funding is part of an initiative led by the US Department of the Interior to improve habitat quality and migration corridors for big game in Western states, especially in winter.\r\n\r\nThe grant enabled NDOT to conduct hot spot analyses of wildlife-vehicle collisions and engage in planning and research to aid wildlife management. It allowed the department to monitor wildlife movements and migrations relative to the location of renewable energy infrastructure, such as wind and solar farms. Additionally, it funded efforts to mitigate disease transmission between domesticated and wild animals.\r\n\r\nThe Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has been instrumental in bighorn sheep restoration efforts since 1981. The state has successfully returned Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep to the Wildcat Hills and Pine Ridge regions of western Nebraska. But the number of vehicle collisions with the animals grew. Between 2009 and 2023, most vehicle collisions in the state involving bighorn sheep occurred in the Wildcat Hills State Recreation Area along Nebraska Highway 71.\r\n\r\nAn initiative to expand the Heartland Expressway\u2014which, in part, comprises Highway 71 and traverses Nebraska, linking Rapid City, South Dakota, to Denver, Colorado\u2014was being planned. The area seemed to be a natural crossing for bighorn sheep, though. So NDOT and Nebraska Game and Parks began collaborating on a study about the dangers to bighorn sheep and motorists and the best ways to mitigate those hazards.\r\n\r\nThe study was designed to provide the comprehensive data needed to make informed decisions about the necessity, location, and costs of building wildlife crossing structures\u2014such as underpass tunnels, viaducts, or overpasses\u2014along with other potential mitigation strategies, according to Nebraska Game and Parks."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":742082,"image_position":"left","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Quick Data Analysis Has a Range of Uses<\/h2>\r\nFor the team, it was crucial that the study pinpoint current wildlife crossing areas to guide the construction of new crossing structures. Central to this effort was monitoring bighorn sheep movements and visualizing the data using ArcGIS technology.\r\n\r\nWorking with VECTRONIC Aerospace, NDOT and Nebraska Game and Parks obtained solar-powered GPS collars equipped with remote satellite communication and attached them to seven bighorn sheep. This enabled real-time monitoring of the animals in the study area.\r\n\r\nResearch team members then employed ArcGIS Online to store and facilitate real-time analysis of the resultant data. The team also leveraged ArcGIS Online to create maps of the bighorn sheep\u2019s movements, including 3D maps that showed, for example, when sheep were on a mountain overlooking the highway. The team used ArcGIS Dashboards as well to create dashboards that revealed the movements of bighorn sheep, displaying how many were in the vicinity of roads and how often this occurred. Taken together, these tools provided a more accessible and comprehensive view of the GPS collar data, simplifying information sharing and collaboration across the organizations.\r\n\r\nThe team also used ArcGIS Velocity to conduct real-time analysis of the incoming GPS collar data. The analysis process included enriching the data with motion statistics, direction of travel, and proximity to road features, as well as calculating distances to known locations to generate near real-time notifications for wildlife managers. Additionally, Velocity offered big data analytic capabilities for long-term analysis. This greatly streamlined the analysis process, which traditionally was done by downloading static spreadsheets and geoenabling them before any kind of analysis could even begin.\r\n\r\nVECTRONIC Aerospace\u2019s solar-powered SOLEX Collar sends information about its position every 15 minutes. Velocity took that information and processed it right away, finishing location analysis in 40 seconds. The system notified Nebraska Game and Parks wildlife managers when bighorn sheep were 50\u2013250 meters from a highway. The wildlife managers could then call the sheriff or other wildlife officers out to that area to help reduce the chance of vehicles colliding with the bighorn sheep.\r\n\r\nReal-time data is not only crucial for preventing wildlife-vehicle collisions, but it can also serve as an early warning system for researchers when radio-collared, wild bighorn sheep interact with other species. This capability could prove pivotal in containing the transmission of diseases between bighorn sheep and other animals, which can result in dramatic population decreases and necessitate the costly culling of herds.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis collaborative effort utilizing new, innovative technology will contribute greatly to species, like bighorn sheep, in need of conservation and will serve us well in developing a variety of mitigation strategies addressing future challenges,\u201d said Todd Nordeen, manager of big game and disease research for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":742092,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Current Insight Informs Future Research<\/h2>\r\nAs a result of integrating the GPS collar data with ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Velocity, wildlife managers were able to proactively monitor bighorn sheep movements in real time to prevent possible wildlife-vehicle collisions and strategically prepare for future wildlife crossings. Being able to view the data derived from the GPS collars in dashboards gave wildlife managers insight into past trends and highway activity.\r\n\r\nNDOT staff expect the bighorn sheep collar data \u201cto be an asset in our feasibility study as we seek to improve our understanding of movement patterns and potential mitigation strategies to enhance the safety of both the traveling public and wildlife in the Wildcat Hills region along [Nebraska Highway] 71,\u201d said Jarrod Walker, highway planning manager for NDOT.\r\n\r\nThe Wildcat Hills pilot study, which began in 2024, has already provided valuable data that will inform the planning of secure and sustainable wildlife corridors in Nebraska. The insight gained from this study will also guide future research on monitoring wildlife movements, mitigations, and potential disease transmission. The use of this technology greatly expands the opportunities to safeguard both humans and wildlife, such as by triggering DOT alerts when animals are in the area so motorists are reminded to stay alert and slow down.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe look forward to developing solutions for big GPS datasets generated by our wildlife collars to make it easier for our clients in Nebraska and around the world to streamline the data analysis in Esri\u2019s ArcGIS platform,\u201d said Chris Kochanny, CEO and president of VECTRONIC Aerospace."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nReal-Time Data Feeds of Bighorn Sheep Locations Protect Motorists and Animals | Spring 2025 | ArcNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With solar-powered GPS collars and ArcGIS Velocity, a 3D monitoring system tracks where the animals do and don\u2019t cross roads in Nebraska.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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