This book contains a history of radio tracking techniques, including not only the successes reported in the scientific literature but also the failures and half successes in the development of techniques for animal tracking. The book uses oral histories, archives and news reports to reconstruct the biopolitics in the history of conducting research with radio tracking in the USA. Presenting four case studies, the book follows the human stories behind radio tracking research.
Firstly, the book explores the work of two of the first groups in the USA to develop radio tags for ecological studies of animals in the late 1950s: William H. Marshall and colleagues at the Cloquet Forest Research Centre and Dwain W. Warner and colleagues at the Cedar Creek Natural History Area, both part of the University of Minnesota. Their trials in gaining support and funding for the research, as well as the development of practical radio tracking tools, are detailed, and they are presented as pioneers who helped gain fiscal support for animal research by presenting it to cold-war era institutions as relevant in the arms race.
The second chapter focuses on the work of John and Frank Craighead in Yellowstone National Park, starting with their tagging of wild grizzly bears at the support of the Park Service. The chapter follows their scientific investigations and the changes in the role of National Parks and Park Services between the late 1950s and mid 1980s. It is in this chapter that the personalities of the characters involved shine through most, and the clashes between two theories of park management at Yellowstone, traditional wilderness protection and new methods in wilderness management, are also examined.
This chapter is followed with one presenting the Smithsonian–Nepal Tiger Ecology Project, the first to radio track tigers in the wild. It follows the relationships of personalities within the project, and institutional relationships between the Smithsonian, WWF–US and WWF International and the Nepalese government. Approaches to tiger research in India and Nepal, and differences in expectations of the project from the Smithsonian and Nepalese government are also contrasted. I found this chapter easier to read than the previous two, and I was interested in its portrayal of the difficulties in international research and funding collaborations, something which many people have experienced but which is not often found in project reports or published articles.
The final chapter outlines the challenges to radio tagging faced by marine mammal researchers in the USA. In addition to detailing some of the practical challenges of adapting radio-tagging equipment to marine species, the implications of the Marine Mammals Protection Act of 1972 for scientific research are explored by focusing on research into killer whales. As this last chapter details a variety of projects, I felt it gave a better overview of its topic than the previous chapters. The author also makes a short detour into more recent events when he details the campaign and attempted release of Keiko, the whale featured in the film Free Willy.
It is interesting to read a history that contains a lot of oral sources and focuses more on the political hurdles and conflicts that both scientists and policy-makers can encounter. However, readers looking for a comprehensive and contemporary history of radio-tracking techniques should look elsewhere: the majority of the book focuses on pre-1990 events, with only short detours (such as information on the attempted release of Keiko and Dave Anderson's albatross project).
The focus of the book is very much on the individuals involved in the histories, which leads to a lack of connectivity between chapters. This means that it is difficult to see an overall theme or message from the complete text, and at times the reader is overwhelmed with a flood of names, acronyms and locations that may be unfamiliar to those from outside the USA. Once immersed in the writing style however, these individual stories provide colour and depth to a unique study of biopolitics in the history of animal tracking.
