![\"allydog\"](\"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/allydog1.jpg\" "\\"allydog\\"")
Ally Macaskill, Wild Land Ranger for Schiehallion and Glen Nevis, has been using some innovative technology this year to help with wildlife monitoring on the John Muir Trust\u2019s East Schiehallion estate. Ally\u2019s German Shorthaired Pointers, Max and Gus, have been wearing GPS locator collars which relay their precise movements and location back to a handset that he carries with him on the hill. <\/p>\n
The slopes of Schiehallion provide breeding sites for many birds, including Hen Harriers, Merlins and Ptarmigan, as well as Red and Black Grouse. Ally uses his dogs to monitor the grouse by sniffing them out and standing still (on point) for long enough for Ally to get up next to them. Man and dog then gradually work alongside each other until the bird is flushed out of the heather, allowing Ally to identify the species.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been very impressed with these GPS collars, which I saw used during trips to Scandanavia,\u201d commented Ally. \u201cThey indicate whether the dogs are on the move or on point. When they get on point the collars mean I can get there quickly, with more chance of seeing what the dogs have found.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new technology has proven particularly effective for the Trust\u2019s annual monitoring of Black Grouse broods on Schiehallion.(1) Ally estimates that there are around 25 male grouse using leks (display sites) on the periphery of the Trust\u2019s property. A UK Biodiversity Action Plan species, Black Grouse are one of the most rapidly declining birds in the UK. Numbers in Scotland have fallen sharply in the last two decades. <\/p>\n
“As well as the mapping function on these GPS collars I can download their movements later onto a computer to work out if we\u2019ve missed any large pockets of ground,\u201d said Ally. \u201cI know of a couple of other people using these devices in Scotland \u2013 they really are a boon for this type of work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ally Macaskill, Wild Land Ranger for Schiehallion and Glen Nevis, has been using some innovative technology this year to help with wildlife monitoring on the John Muir Trust\u2019s East Schiehallion estate. Ally\u2019s German Shorthaired Pointers, Max and Gus, have been wearing GPS locator collars which relay their precise movements and location back to a handset that he carries with him on the hill. The slopes of Schiehallion provide breeding sites for many birds, including Hen Harriers, Merlins and Ptarmigan, as well as Red and Black Grouse. Ally uses his dogs to monitor the grouse by sniffing them out and standing…<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22035,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions\/22035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Read more ›<\/div>\n