{"id":18470,"date":"2025-07-04T16:12:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T22:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cellphone-data-could-help-wildlife-thrive-according-to-colorado-researchers\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:39:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:39:22","slug":"cellphone-data-could-help-wildlife-thrive-according-to-colorado-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cellphone-data-could-help-wildlife-thrive-according-to-colorado-researchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Cellphone data could help wildlife thrive, according to Colorado researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An
An uncollared adult female mountain lion is photographed with a motion sensor camera on July 10, 2016. (U.S. National Park Service via Associated Press file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Animals have long adapted to the ways people move through the world. They skirt around popular hiking trails, avoid busy roads or entirely abandon long-held migration routes. In some cases, they have adapted to our cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll notice that large carnivores like mountain lions dominate [the] urban landscape, but they only do so at night (when) there is no one on the road,\u201d said Heather Abernathy, who conducted the study while she was a CSU postdoctoral fellow at the Rocky Mountain Research Station.<\/p>\n

Abernathy is part of a growing effort to understand how \u2013 and how often \u2013 humans and wildlife cross paths. For decades, scientists like her and her team have been able to use GPS collars and satellite data to track where the animals go. But without knowing where we humans are, scientists don\u2019t have a complete picture of these interactions.<\/p>\n

Abernathy thinks the missing data might already be in your pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s literally just data from your cellphone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A new tool for conservation<\/div>\n

Researchers from institutions including the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Fort Collins and Colorado State University recently published a study exploring how mobile phone data could inform wildlife conservation.<\/p>\n

Every time you take a photo, check your email or pull up directions, your phone logs GPS coordinates. Companies already use that information to deliver personalized ads or tell you when your go-to restaurant isn\u2019t crowded, for example. Abernathy and her team saw that use case, and asked, what if we used it to help with wildlife conservation, too?<\/p>\n

\"Cyclists
Cyclists ride in Summit County on Nov. 30, 2021. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen we contacted (a company that already uses that data) saying, \u2018Hey, we want to buy this for wildlife,\u2019\u201d Abernathy said the company was surprised, \u201cbecause it\u2019s such a weird, unique use of this data that they typically see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abernathy said the researchers\u2019 use of the location data would be anonymized, without names or personal identifiers, to protect people\u2019s privacy. But when all these anonymous data points are taken together, they can show scientists where human activity overlaps with animals\u2019 habitats.<\/p>\n

As part of the study, in California, Abernathy’s team were able to see interactions between people and mountain lions on a scale they did not expect to find.<\/p>\n

Sharing space with mountain lions \u2013 and not even knowing it<\/div>\n

According to Abernathy, \u201cIn one month, humans came in contact with mountain lions about 13,000 times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mountain lions are one of America’s deadliest apex predators, and they live sparsely. On average, just two to three adults<\/a> live in 38 square miles of habitat. And Abarnathy said, \u201cI bet you no one even saw the (mountain) lion nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mountain lions probably did notice, though, and they adjusted their behavior. It\u2019s easy to imagine how many human interactions more densely populated species, like elk or deer, may be having, and how often those animals might be changing their behavior in response.<\/p>\n

A smarter way to manage wildlife<\/div>\n

Abernathy believes analyzing cellphone data could help wildlife managers respond more precisely to animal patterns, and help people make better choices when they\u2019re out on the land.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (we can) create a better road map,\u201d she said. \u201cPlanning for things like where to put corridors, planning for where to put signs to say, \u2018Hey, just so you know, you\u2019re getting near bighorn sheep winter range. They\u2019re really stressed out.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, cool. Yeah, absolutely. I\u2019ll stay out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

If the technology catches on, the next time you head out to hike or snap a photo of the sunset, you might quietly contribute to a better understanding between humans and animals.<\/p>\n

And while it may be frightening to know just how many bears and mountain lions you are narrowly bumping into while hiking, Abernathy sees it differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s sort of comforting knowing that you\u2019re having all these interactions with animals and they\u2019re just like \u2013 they want nothing to do with you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This story has been updated to clarify that Heather Abernathy conducted the wildlife study while at the Rocky Mountain Research Station.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

uncollared adult female mountain lion is photographed with a motion sensor camera on July 10, 2016. (U.S. National Park Service via Associated Press file) Animals have long adapted to the ways people move through the world. They skirt around popular hiking trails, avoid busy roads or entirely abandon long-held migration routes. In some cases, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,360,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-18470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-technology-general","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20607,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18470\/revisions\/20607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18470"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=18470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}