Man this tiger tracking project started like most of mine – saw a wildlife documentary late at night while chugging coffee and thought “how hard could it be?” Spoiler: way harder than expected.
Figuring Out the Gear Mess
First I hit Amazon looking for tracking collars. Nearly spit out my drink seeing prices. Three thousand bucks? Nah. Dug around shady forums until I found these sketchy “open source” blueprints some guy in Finland posted. Printed the plastic cases using my buddy’s 3D printer – looked like melted Lego but hey, free’s free.
Spent two weekends trying to jam together:
- GPS modules scavenged from old phones
- Cheapo walkie-talkie batteries duct-taped together
- A motion sensor from my broken Xbox Kinect
Looked like a bomb squad nightmare. Had to hit up Reddit when smoke came out after powering up.
Software Headaches
The Finland guy’s code might as well have been hieroglyphics. Downloaded some “tiger tracking app” from GitHub that hadn’t been updated since Obama was president. Took three days just getting Python libraries installed before getting hit with “DLL not found” nonsense.
Finally got the stupid map to show dots moving around! Until…all dots started doing figure eights on my laptop screen. My cat Winston jumped on the bench chasing the dots. Real helpful pal.
Field Disaster Time
Hauled everything to the state park near uncle Ray’s farm. Got weird looks strapping my janky collar prototypes to deer statues outside the ranger station. Ranger Ted shook his head saying “Boy that ain’t staying on no cat.”
He was right. First night:
- Duct tape failed in 20 minutes
- Heavy rain fried circuit #3
- Raccoons chewed through my last set of wires
Sat there eating soggy chips at 3AM watching sixty bucks worth of batteries drain into mud.
Actually Working (Sort Of)
Stole my kid’s weatherproof Pelican lunchbox for prototype #4. Gorilla-glued the sensors down this time. Used dental floss to tie the damn thing onto the taxidermy bobcat at Bass Pro Shop. Hey, it’s the closest I’m getting to a real cat.
Holy crap it worked for three days straight! Got actual movement data! Mostly parking lot patterns from employees moving the display, but STILL. Got alerts when janitors cleaned at midnight. Progress.
Big Lesson Learned
Wildlife research ain’t about perfect data. It’s about:
- Embracing duct tape failures
- Sacrificing your kid’s school supplies
- Accepting you’ll get 80% useless alerts
Still tweaking battery life. Winston’s sitting on my keyboard as I write this. Probably planning sabotage.
