Otter is an adult male tagged Jan. 18, 2019, in Jefferson County, NY, not far from Fort Drum, by Tom McDonald. He was the first snowy owl — and one of the first birds anywhere in the world — fitted with a hybrid GSM (cellular) and Argos (satellite) transmitter, which allows us to monitor his movements year-round. His transmitter was paid for by generous donors to Project SNOWstorm. In May and June 2019 Otter migrated north to Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, summering on uninhabited Rowley Island in the Foxe Basin. In October and November he moved south along the western margins of Hudson and James Bay, and checked in via GSM cell network with his full data load Dec. 1, 2019, just north of Montreal.
