The findings of the Arkun Dam Wildlife Project are being used by Turkey’s Nature Conservation and National Parks Departments to improve the effectiveness of species monitoring and develop new policies.
Thanks to the analysis studies and data layers that Enerjisa Uretim created with ArcGIS Online, valuable information about the region and its ecosystem can now be used to inform decisions on how to protect wildlife and biodiversity and determine risk factors.
ArcGIS technology provided unprecedented accuracy to gain new understanding of wildlife behavior. For instance, during the project, 43 wild goats were fitted with GPS-global system for mobile communication (GSM) satellite transmitters. But due to technical problems in the transmitters as well as climate and terrain conditions, the number of wild goats monitored for more than a year was 20: 5 juveniles, 5 females, and 10 males. In addition to these wild goats, Ayaz—a one-year-old male—was monitored, but only for five months due to the significant difference in behavior. One of the biggest benefits of ArcGIS is that while investigating the reasons for these intermittent losses, it allows research to be carried out at points on the map according to the last coordinate data. Accordingly, the status of a monitored individual or whether there is a malfunction in the transmitter is also recorded.