2020 Turkey Vulture Tracking Update | MPG Ranch

2020 Turkey Vulture Tracking Update

August 20, 2020

See where the Turkey Vultures we outfitted with GPS transmitters last summer have traveled and how this year's trapping season is going.

2020-08-01_RVRI-1.jpeg

Although researchers have tracked Turkey Vultures migratory routes in much of the United States, no one has gathered telemetry data from the Intermountain West.

2020-08-01_RVRI-2.jpeg

All ten of the vultures with transmitters survived their fall migrations and wintered from northeastern Mexico to Nicaragua.

2020-08-01_RVRI-3.jpeg

On December 16, the transmitter attached to Chewy stopped moving on Chewy’s wintering grounds in Mexico.

2020-08-01_RVRI-4.jpeg

Nine of the GPS tagged Turkey Vultures survived their winter. Dizzy was the first to head north on March 4.

2020-08-01_RVRI-5.jpeg

In early April, the transmitter attached to Zip stopped moving near Durango, CO.

2020-08-01_RVRI-6.jpeg

Operating with a smaller crew, we decided to trap at a single site rather than at the multiple locations we used last year.

2020-08-01_RVRI-7.jpeg

So far this season, we have captured four Turkey Vultures and outfitted them with GPS units.

2020-08-01_RVRI-8.jpeg

To date, we have resighted four of the eight vultures with wing tags.

2020-08-01_RVRI-9.jpeg

Stay tuned to see how the rest of our season turns out and where the vultures with GPS units travel this fall!

Previous Research Update

Summer 2020 Hummingbird project Update

Next Research Update

Summer 2020 Songbird Banding Update - Part II