The Internet of Animals: How Wildlife Can Help Forecast Disasters, Disease, and Environmental Change

Together with 1014 we warmly invite you to a conversation and lecture with Martin Wikelski, Director of the Department of Migration at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and Honorary Professor at the University of Konstanz.

In this event, Martin Wikelski will explore how the collective wisdom of the Earth’s animals can help address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. Through the emerging concept of the “Internet of Animals,” researchers are gaining unprecedented insight into environmental change, animal behavior, and ecosystem dynamics on a global scale.

By combining the evolved senses of animals with advanced technical sensors on animal-borne tracking tags, scientists are now able to observe the planet at exceptionally high spatial and temporal resolution. This work can help predict natural catastrophes, forecast the spread of zoonotic diseases, safeguard food resources, and deepen our understanding of the ecosystem services animals provide.

A key part of this vision is the ICARUS initiative, an international, bottom-up, science-driven technology development project focused on creating small, affordable, and autonomous IoT sensing devices for animal movement and behavior — effectively, wearables for wildlife. The resulting data, made openly available through the Movebank platform, helps researchers better understand, monitor, predict, and protect life on Earth.

At the same time, these unprecedented life-history data from individual wild animals provide new insight into fundamental biological processes and highlight the importance of monitoring and protecting animal life on a global scale.

For more information on the Next Frontiers Symposium Series, including other sessions and registration details, please click here.