How ArcGIS and GPS tech are transforming bighorn sheep safety in Nebraska

In the United States, about 1 in every 128 drivers every year will collide with a wild animal, causing more than $8 billion in damages according to the US Department of Transportation.

Safeguarding both people and wildlife along transportation corridors is crucial, but it requires precise information about wildlife crossing locations. This is why the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, in collaboration with the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT), joined forces with industry leader and Esri partner VECTRONIC Aerospace for an innovative wildlife study. The project team utilized geographic information system (GIS) technologies in conjunction with VECTRONIC Aerospace’s GPS to create a real-time 3D monitoring system to track where bighorn sheep were—and weren’t—crossing roads.

As part of a national initiative led by the US Department of the Interior through Secretarial Order 3362 and funded by  the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, NDOT received a federal grant to reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife. This grant provided funds for not only construction projects but also for nonconstruction projects that would support protecting motorists and wildlife. This included hot spot analysis of wildlife-vehicle collisions; planning and research to aid wildlife management, monitor wildlife movements and migrations relative to the location of renewable energy infrastructure (e.g., wind and solar farms); and efforts to mitigate disease transmission between domesticated and wild animals.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has been instrumental in bighorn sheep restoration efforts since 1981. The state has successfully returned Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep to the Wildcat Hills and Pine Ridge regions of western Nebraska. But the number of vehicle collisions with the animals grew. Between 2009 and 2023, most vehicle collisions in the state involving bighorn sheep occurred in the Wildcat Hills State Recreation Area along Nebraska Highway 71.

An initiative to expand the Heartland Expressway—which traverses Nebraska and links Rapid City, South Dakota, to Denver—was being planned. Knowing that the area seemed to be a natural crossing for the bighorn sheep, NDOT and Nebraska Game and Parks began collaborating on a study about the dangers to bighorn sheep and motorists, and the best ways to mitigate those dangers.

The study was designed to provide comprehensive data needed to make informed decisions about the necessity, location, and cost of wildlife crossing structures (like underpass tunnels, viaducts, or overpasses), along with other potential mitigation strategies, according to Nebraska Game and Parks.

For the team it was crucial that the study pinpointed current wildlife-crossing areas to guide the construction of new crossing structures. Central to this effort was collecting location data by using GPS collars, and visualizing the data using Esri’s ArcGIS technologies.

NDOT and Nebraska Game and Parks personnel, working with Esri partner VECTRONIC Aerospace, brought solar-powered GPS collars equipped with remote satellite communication and attached them to bighorn sheep. This enabled real-time monitoring of the animals in the study area.

For their study, the research team members utilized ArcGIS Online—secure and scalable software as a service (SaaS) specifically designed for geospatial workflows—to facilitate real-time analysis and store the resultant data in a spatial database. The team also leveraged ArcGIS Online to create web-based products such as maps and dashboards. These tools provided a more accessible and comprehensive view of GPS collar data, simplifying information sharing and collaboration across the organizations.

The team also used ArcGIS Velocity for real-time analysis of the incoming GPS collar data. The analysis process included enriching the data with motion statistics, direction of travel, and proximity to road features; and calculating distances to known locations, generating near real-time notifications to wildlife managers. Additionally, ArcGIS Velocity offered big data analytic capabilities for long-term analysis. This greatly streamlined the process required to conduct such analysis, which had typically been done by downloading static spreadsheets and geoenabling them before any kind of analysis could even begin.

By using the GPS technology in VECTRONIC Aerospace’s solar-powered SOLEX Collar, which sends information about its position every 15 minutes, ArcGIS Velocity processed the information right away, finishing location analysis within 40 seconds. The system notified Nebraska Game and Parks wildlife managers when bighorn sheep were between 50 and 250 meters from a highway.

Real-time data not only is crucial in preventing wildlife-vehicle collisions but also can serve as an early warning system for researchers when radio-collared, wild bighorn sheep interact with other species. This capability could prove pivotal in containing the transmission of diseases between populations. These diseases can result in dramatic population decreases and the costly necessity of culling herds.

“This collaborative effort utilizing new, innovative technology will contribute greatly to species, like bighorn sheep, in need of conservation; and will serve us well in developing a variety of mitigation strategies addressing future challenges,” said Todd Nordeen, manager of big game and disease research for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

The data collected from VECTRONIC Aerospace’s GPS collars was integrated with ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Velocity. As a result, proactive, real-time monitoring became a reality, equipping wildlife managers with the tools to possibly prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions and strategically prepare for future wildlife crossings. The data derived from the GPS collars was visualized through ArcGIS Dashboards, offering wildlife managers insight into past trends and highway activity.

NDOT staff expect the bighorn sheep collar data “to be an asset in our feasibility study as we seek to improve our understanding of movement patterns and potential mitigation strategies to enhance the safety of both the traveling public and wildlife in the Wildcat Hills region along [Nebraska Highway] 71,” said Jarrod Walker, highway planning manager, Nebraska Department of Transportation.

The Wildcat Hills pilot study, which began in 2024 with the award of the grant, has already provided valuable data that will inform planning secure and sustainable wildlife corridors in Nebraska. The insights gained from this study will also guide future research efforts focused on monitoring wildlife movements, migrations, and potential disease transmission. The use of this technology greatly expands the opportunities to safeguard both humans and wildlife, such as by triggering DOT alerts when animals are in the area so that motorists are reminded to stay alert and slow down.

“We look forward to developing solutions for big GPS datasets generated by our wildlife collars to make it easier for our clients in Nebraska and around the world to streamline the data analysis in Esri’s ArcGIS platform,” said Chris Kochanny, CEO and president of VECTRONIC Aerospace.