CTT teams up with u-blox for groundbreaking Antarctic penguin conservation initiative

u-blox, a leader in positioning and wireless communication technologies, has partnered with Cellular Tracking Technologies (CTT) to track and monitor the Adélie penguin colony in Antarctica utilizing its CloudLocate positioning service. This service is vital for understanding the diving and feeding behavior of penguins in one of the planet's most challenging environments. The need for this system arose when Point Blue sought to study the movements of juvenile Adélie penguins on Ross Island, recognizing these birds as essential indicators of environmental changes due to climate shifts and human activities.

The collaboration between CTT and u-blox led to the development of a sustainable tracking solution, featuring a compact and energy-efficient device attached to the penguins. This device is designed to overcome substantial obstacles like the penguins' small size, their aquatic habits, and the absence of cost-effective connectivity options in remote areas. By offloading the positioning calculation to the cloud, the u-blox CloudLocate service significantly reduces energy consumption, thereby enabling long-term monitoring with minimal impact on the animals.

This innovative approach is not only crucial for the conservation of the Adélie penguins but is also anticipated to be applied in broader wildlife research and conservation efforts, demonstrating a significant step forward in the non-invasive tracking of wildlife in remote regions.