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Researchers place collar with video camera on Pa. elk

ELK COUNTY, Pa. — This week, researchers placed a collar on an adult cow elk in Pennsylvania that will record her locations through GPS technology and record video shot by a camera housed within the collar.

The camera is programmed to collect video and audio during specific times of the day.

The collar will fall off the elk in about 75 days, at which time the Game Commission will send the collar back to the manufacturer so the recordings can be retrieved.

By providing never-before-collected information at the micro-scale, the recordings and readings from the collar will assist biologists and land managers and help with the planning and development of habitat-management programs.

The Keystone Elk Country Alliance (KECA) purchased the collar and will use the information collected for educational programming as well as habitat management.

"High-quality habitat is vitally important to elk, to the Game Commission and to KECA," said KECA President and CEO Rawley Cogan. "We are pleased to fund this pilot habitat study and we look forward to cooperating with the biologists to refine the habitat-management plan for Pennsylvania's elk range."