Outfitted with antennas and radio frequency tracking equipment, Justin, Scott Bergen from the Wildlife Conservation Society, and 1 year old Duncan and I headed out into the field to find the GPS collars that were a part of our long distance pronghorn migration study.  Last year, the collars did not release as anticipated and recovering the collars turned into an epic adventure. We were prepared again for a difficult period of finding the collars and I was certainly wondering whether bringing a one year old along would be an epic parental disaster. The day turned out to be anything but epic as we found one collar after another with relative ease. Scott started out early and had already found 2 collars by the time we met up with him in the Pioneer foothills at 9 a.m. We reviewed the maps, divided terrain and headed out. Duncan, Justin, and I found a pair of collars up a short, gentle draw after about a 10 minute walk.From the spot, it seemed like the pronghorn must like having a nice view of the spectacular Pioneer peaks.

Several naps later, we had recovered 8 of 9 collars and were quite please with our success.

We’ll report back after we download the data and see how the migration route compares with year 1.