Murrow, a Ph.D. candidate at UT, is the chief field researcher for the five-year experimental elk release in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The collars also incorporate mortality switches and activity switches. The mortality switches are programed to activate if the collars remain motionless for a pre-determined length of time. Murrow said the collars are set to activate if the collar is still for two hours. She hopes that this will allow her to get to any elk that may have died in time for a necropsy to be performed.
Time can be of the essence when trying to get to downed elk.
When researchers found the remains of two elk that had been released in Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area in Tennessee last December, scavengers had picked the carcasses clean and no cause of death could be determined. The activity switches will help Murrow determine the elks' movement and feeding patterns. The switches are so sensitive that one can determine the position of the elk's head, Murrow said. The gates to the holding pen will be opened in early April. The elk will not be forced out of the pen, but allowed to leave on their own.