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May
08
The Internet of Animals: How Wildlife Can Help Forecast Disasters, Disease, and Environmental Change
NYC
May 8, 2026
/
10:30 am
-
11:45 am
In-Person
Symposia
Spacious Studio 1, 873 Broadway, Second Floor, NY, NY 10003
Technology & Climate: The Outer Space Frontier I - Lecture and Conversation

The collective wisdom of the Earth's animals provides an immense bio-treasure of unprecedented information for humankind. Learning from animals in the "Internet of Animals" can help us predict natural catastrophes, forecast global zoonotic disease spreads, or safeguard food resources while monitoring in situ every corner of the planet. The evolved senses of animals as well as technical sensors on animal-borne tracking tags enable local earth observations at highest spatial and temporal resolution. To protect and understand the ecosystem services provided by animals, we need to monitor individual animals seamlessly on a global scale. At the same time, these unprecedented life-history data of individual wild animals provide deep, novel insight into fundamental biological processes.

The ICARUS initiative, an international bottom-up, science-driven technology development of small, cheap and autonomous IoT (Internet of Things) sensing devices for animal movement and behavior is aiming towards this: wearables for wildlife. The resulting big data available in the open-source data base Movebank helps understand, monitor, predict and protect life on our planet.

Featuring Martin Wikelski (Director of the Department of Migration of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and Honorary Professor at the University of Konstanz), et al.

This event is co-hosted by the German Center for Research and Innovation (DWIH) New York

Thank you to our program co-hosts and partners, the ACG, DWIH, and the University of Cologne New York Office, as well as to Vitra for generously hosting us for our opening reception and keynote. Thank you also to Campus OWL, Deutsches Haus at NYU, Goethe-Institut New York, Heidelberg University Association, and UA Ruhr North America for your support.

Biography

Prof. Dr. Martin Wikelski is the Director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (formerly Ornithology) in Radolfzell (Germany), Professor in Biology at the University of Konstanz and member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Previously, he held positions at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Princeton University. His specialization is the study of global animal movement.

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The collective wisdom of the Earth's animals provides an immense bio-treasure of unprecedented information for humankind. Learning from animals in the "Internet of Animals" can help us predict natural catastrophes, forecast global zoonotic disease spreads, or safeguard food resources while monitoring in situ every corner of the planet. The evolved senses of animals as well as technical sensors on animal-borne tracking tags enable local earth observations at highest spatial and temporal resolution. To protect and understand the ecosystem services provided by animals, we need to monitor individual animals seamlessly on a global scale. At the same time, these unprecedented life-history data of individual wild animals provide deep, novel insight into fundamental biological processes.

The ICARUS initiative, an international bottom-up, science-driven technology development of small, cheap and autonomous IoT (Internet of Things) sensing devices for animal movement and behavior is aiming towards this: wearables for wildlife. The resulting big data available in the open-source data base Movebank helps understand, monitor, predict and protect life on our planet.

Featuring Martin Wikelski (Director of the Department of Migration of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and Honorary Professor at the University of Konstanz), et al.

This event is co-hosted by the German Center for Research and Innovation (DWIH) New York

Thank you to our program co-hosts and partners, the ACG, DWIH, and the University of Cologne New York Office, as well as to Vitra for generously hosting us for our opening reception and keynote. Thank you also to Campus OWL, Deutsches Haus at NYU, Goethe-Institut New York, Heidelberg University Association, and UA Ruhr North America for your support.

Biography

Prof. Dr. Martin Wikelski is the Director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (formerly Ornithology) in Radolfzell (Germany), Professor in Biology at the University of Konstanz and member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Previously, he held positions at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Princeton University. His specialization is the study of global animal movement.

Next Frontiers Symposium
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Posted in
Climate & Environment
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May
08
NYC
The Internet of Animals: How Wildlife Can Help Forecast Disasters, Disease, and Environmental Change
May 8, 2026
/
10:30 am
-
11:45 am
In-Person
Symposia
Spacious Studio 1, 873 Broadway, Second Floor, NY, NY 10003
Technology & Climate: The Outer Space Frontier I - Lecture and Conversation

The collective wisdom of the Earth's animals provides an immense bio-treasure of unprecedented information for humankind. Learning from animals in the "Internet of Animals" can help us predict natural catastrophes, forecast global zoonotic disease spreads, or safeguard food resources while monitoring in situ every corner of the planet. The evolved senses of animals as well as technical sensors on animal-borne tracking tags enable local earth observations at highest spatial and temporal resolution. To protect and understand the ecosystem services provided by animals, we need to monitor individual animals seamlessly on a global scale. At the same time, these unprecedented life-history data of individual wild animals provide deep, novel insight into fundamental biological processes.

The ICARUS initiative, an international bottom-up, science-driven technology development of small, cheap and autonomous IoT (Internet of Things) sensing devices for animal movement and behavior is aiming towards this: wearables for wildlife. The resulting big data available in the open-source data base Movebank helps understand, monitor, predict and protect life on our planet.

Featuring Martin Wikelski (Director of the Department of Migration of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and Honorary Professor at the University of Konstanz), et al.

This event is co-hosted by the German Center for Research and Innovation (DWIH) New York

Thank you to our program co-hosts and partners, the ACG, DWIH, and the University of Cologne New York Office, as well as to Vitra for generously hosting us for our opening reception and keynote. Thank you also to Campus OWL, Deutsches Haus at NYU, Goethe-Institut New York, Heidelberg University Association, and UA Ruhr North America for your support.

Biography

Prof. Dr. Martin Wikelski is the Director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (formerly Ornithology) in Radolfzell (Germany), Professor in Biology at the University of Konstanz and member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Previously, he held positions at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Princeton University. His specialization is the study of global animal movement.

Next Frontiers Symposium
Explore series events
Posted in
Climate & Environment
.
Partners
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