The time has come to fit Itam with her GPS collar!🐻✨
Itam is our potential release candidate and plans are in
place for her release in March 2025. Ever since Itam was released into the
forest enclosure in 2022, she started exhibiting strong forest survival skills.
Itam is elusive, cautious and has no interest in being friendly with humans.
She will usually keep her distance when she hears her keepers coming and will
spy from behind the bushes to see who it is before barking at them and running
away. She enjoys spending most of her time on her own, or high up in the thick
forest canopy where it is very hard to spot her.
Over the past year, her management has been modified to suit
a potential release candidate whereby her diet was changed to randomised
amounts, variety and timing. Her exposure to humans has also been significantly
decreased as only 3 keepers have been appointed to deal with her management and
precaution (noise level and human activity) is taken when she is out in her
enclosure. Behaviour observation data collection has also been ongoing to
further analyse her suitability to be a hard release candidate.
Fitting her with this GPS collar a month before her release
will give her time to get comfortable with the collar and also give us
confirmation that the collar is functioning well. When Itam is released, the
collar will send us GPS points of her location, allowing us to track her
movement patterns and notify us if the collar has stopped moving (finger
crossed this doesn’t happen! 🤞☺️)
As the time for her release comes closer, the team is
working hard preparing and ensuring Itam is fit for her day of freedom. Thank
you to everyone who have continuously been supporting Itam’s journey!🐻🤍
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