GPS collars help wildlife researchers answer important questions
Huggers are usually volunteers wanting a close encounter with wildlife. They have to maintain a full-body hold on animals while scientists attach trackable GPS collars. (Kris Millgate/www.tightlinemedia.com/)This story originally featured on Outdoor Life.Two types of people are on the mountain during wildlife round-ups. Runners and huggers. I’m a hugger, an intense hugger, and I must hug until a runner arrives. I’m helping the Idaho Department of Fish & Game capture big game animals. It’s my job to keep a mule deer doe wrapped tightly in my arms until a wildlife biologist, or runner, comes to collar it. Two feet of snow padded my fall when I jumped on the deer, but it’s also delaying the biologists. That’s why I’m hugging for all I’m worth. The doe is in fight mode. It screams in my face—similar to the vocal range of a goat—and I know a kick is coming. I tighten...