Following the decision to end cooperation with Russia due to logistical challenges after the invasion of Ukraine, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, led by Martin Wikelski, are set to launch their own satellites as part of the 'Icarus' project to observe animal behavior from space, according to The Guardian. "After the invasion of Ukraine we decided to halt that cooperation," Wikelski stated, which led to the necessity of building a new satellite from scratch for the Icarus project.
The Icarus CubeSat, expected to be launched in 2025, will enable the team to commence their study of animal movements on a global scale. "We hope to launch a fleet of about six satellites and create a global observation network that will not only provide details about wildlife movements and animal health across the planet but will reveal how creatures react to natural phenomena like earthquakes," Wikelski said, according to CNN Greece. Researchers have enrolled thousands of animals in a program that uses microscopic transmitters attached to mammals, birds, and insects to monitor their movements from a space satellite, according to The Guardian.
The Icarus program was made possible due to the revolution in tagging technology, which includes tiny digital transmitters using small lithium batteries and cheap, abundant miniature GPS devices that allow for the creation of tags weighing just a few grams, as reported by The Guardian. "This will provide us with a huge volume of data about how animals behave," Wikelski added.
Understanding how creatures react to geological changes is one area of interest in the tagging technology revolution. The main idea of the program is to explore the ability of animals to predict natural events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, while also studying their reactions to imminent natural events. Previous studies have indicated that animals may have the ability to predict natural disasters. For instance, in experiments conducted in Sicily on the slopes of Mount Etna, sensors showed that goats became nervous before an eruption and refused to move to higher pastures where under normal conditions they would happily go. "We have found the behaviour of goats is pretty good at predicting large volcanic eruptions," Wikelski said.
Additionally, in the Abruzzo mountains in Italy, dogs and other animals have shown the ability to predict seven out of eight major earthquakes over twelve years. Researchers monitored dogs, sheep, and other farm animals in the region and found similar predictive behaviors, according to The Guardian. The observation of strange animal behavior before natural disasters has been known for centuries. The Guardian cits Thucydides' accounts of rats and dogs abandoning the city of Helice in 373 BC before an earthquake.
The Guardian, The Independent, and CNN reported on the planned satellite launch, among other outlets.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq