Kivi Kuaka project

Subject – Environment

Context – Birds which hear the infra-sounds of storms, tsunamis, lightning, and so on serve as alarms when tagged.

Concept –

The Kivi Kuaka project, led by French ornithologist Frederic Jiguet, wants to use migratory birds to warn of an impending tsunami in the Pacific.
Jiguet has fit 56 birds of five species with sophisticated animal tracking tags. These tags send data to the International Space Station, which relays them back to Earth.
The project taps into the ability of birds to hear the low-frequency infra-sounds that humans can’t hear. Each event — storms, tsunamis, lightning, aeroplanes and so on — emits its own distinct infra-sounds. In the case of tsunamis, these sounds travel much faster than the tsunami itself, and the birds pick them up early.