GPS tracking technology is transforming vulture conservation by revealing migration routes, habitat needs, and mortality hotspots that allow targeted welfare and conservation interventions.
GPS tracking of individual vultures provides welfare insights impossible through population-level observation — allowing identification of specific mortality causes for individual birds, detection of poisoning events, and evidence for prosecution of wildlife criminals. The technology imposes minimal welfare cost through attachment procedures conducted under anaesthesia. The welfare benefits flowing from the conservation knowledge generated are substantial — saving birds from poisoning by identifying and addressing hotspots, and guiding power line modification programs to locations where collisions most frequently occur.