- The wing nuts and then just make sure everything
is connected and then basically you turn it on
to the frequency that you want,
adjust the gain which basically widens
or expands the direction you're shooting
and you just kinda hold this up and try
to pick up the signal and zero in on where the frog is.
- [Voiceover] Chris Shop is searching
for these little creatures.
It's a Pine Barren Treefrog.
It was named North Carolina's state frog in 2013.
- Ideally we'd like to get a visual
without being disruptive so if it's buried down
under a sphagnum mat, unless it hasn't moved from that spot
in a few successive tracking events
then we'll just leave it be, mark that spot.
- [Voiceover] The little tree frog get its name from this,
the habitat it calls home.
The long leaf pine ecosystem.
It's also called the pine barrens.
The wetland areas of long leaf pine forests grow moss,
ferns and other plants and it creates an area
that is too acidic for most amphibians
except the Pine Barren Tree Frog.
Trouble is the long leaf pine ecosystem is disappearing.
It's being developed.
- Um, this species here has disappeared
from a good portion of its range in North Caroline.
- [Voiceover] And it's difficult to protect a species
when not much is known about it so researchers
at the North Carolina Zoo are tracking
the Pine Barren Tree Frog to learn more about its habitat,
its range and what it needs to survive.
- We decided we were gonna do a telemetry study
and look at the movements,
how they're utilizing their habitat,
what sort of factors influence their movements
whether it be fire, whether it be proximity of water.
- [Voiceover] And how do you track a little frog?
With a really little frog-sized tracking belt.
- The transmitter itself weighs
about the weight of an aspirin so about .3 grams.
- [Voiceover] 20 frogs were outfitted with tracking devices.
The batteries last 40 to 50 days.
Trackers go out three times a week.
Tree frog telemetry is just one example of the expertise
of zoo staff in the science of animal tracking.
Here's another.
This is Ziggy.
She's a year and a half old black vulture
and if you look closely,
you can see the transmitter on her back.
The GSM GPS transmitters use cell phone signals
which are less expensive than satellite tracking systems
and zoo researchers are using these devices
to track vulture in Kenya and Tanzania.
- This has a little backpack so it goes around her wings
and then sits on her back and you can see that antenna
that comes out on the backs
that we can get a good signal from it.
- [Voiceover] The transmitters send out data once a day
showing locations and flying altitude.
Several months of tracking data
revealed the birds cover almost 125 miles per day.
That information is critical in developing a plan
to protect the birds which are vital
for a healthy environment.
- They are nature's cleanup crew
so they're out there eating dead animals.
They actually have really acidic stomachs
so when they eat something that's died of a disease
they process and get rid of that disease
so they can actually remove things like anthrax
from the ecosystem.
- [Voiceover] The technology may be changing
but the science hasn't.
- So by having elephants with collars,
you're getting more accurate information
about where the herd is
and it makes it a little bit easier to monitor them.
- [Voiceover] The zoo has 15 years of experience
in animal tracking starting with elephants in Cameroon.
Researchers recently added Nigerian elephants to their list.
Zoo staff and local park rangers are learning more
about the elephants' land requirements.
The tracking system also alerts rangers
when elephants stray from protected areas.
- So rangers are trying to track the elephants
so that they know where they are before the poachers do.
In addition to poaching,
the other big problem elephants have
is they sometimes move out of protected areas
into people's farms so by knowing where the elephants are,
we can see when the herd is starting
to head out towards the border
and then the rangers can go out
and make sure the elephants stay in the park
and don't cause conflict with local villages.
- [Voiceover] Back to the tree frogs,
zoo staffers have found that telemetry only goes so far.
- When we put these transmitters on, followed them around,
we found that they weren't moving
as much as we kind of thought they might.
We also found that it was really kind of difficult
to find females.
The males we can find by their call.
- [Voiceover] Sometimes you need to go old school
to find the frogs.
- And we would stand out there and try to get them
to call back to us and I can do the call for you best I can,
probably an insult to Pine Barren Tree Frogs
but it usually works if they're out there calling
the kinda what we do is kinda something like this.
(quack quack quack quack quack)
We usually work in teams and we'll go out there
and kinda try to triangulate where they are
so one of will go on the far side,
one of us will go on the other side.
- Conversation is a critical part
of what this zoo is about
so we focus our conservation efforts both
on North Carolina species
and also on animals in Africa
because that's what we have represented here at the zoo
and we think it's important
that not only are we giving people a chance
to learn about animals but we're also helping
to protect the relatives of these animals out in the wild.