GPS Tracking For Cattle Herd Helps Protect Your Live Stock

Companies like ours sell GPS vehicle tracker systems to, well, track personal cars and fleet vehicles. However, people are inventive, and it's not surprising to discover them using GPS tracking systems in creative and unusual ways. GPS riding art Michael "Wally" Wallace is a middle school science teacher. His hobby is using GPS vehicle tracking to transform maps of the city into art.

When he pulled the thieves over, they naturally claimed the hay was theirs; they were on their way to feed their cattle. When the sheriff showed them the GPS hidden in a bale, they asked if they could simply return the hay and forget the whole incident. They went to jail. Since then hay thefts have dropped dramatically in Tillman County, Oklahoma.

Wally's vehicle tracker continuously sends location data to a satellite, which relays it to a GPS server that stores and records the data. The route data is then superimposed on Google Maps to reveal his "drawing." Wally's art has been featured in various media around the world. You can see a showcase of his work by visiting his online gallery at WallGPX.com. Who knows? It may lead you to digitally sketching your own masterpieces.

Manta rays have the highest brain-to-body ratio of all rays and sharks. And because they don't have dangerous stingers like stingrays, they're harmless to humans. Unfortunately, humans aren't harmless to manta rays. They chop the rays for shark chum, use them for traditional Chinese medicine and run over them with ships. If marine biologists hoped to improve the long-term survival of manta rays, they desperately needed more data.

Well, almost impossible. When one farmer complained that more than 30 bales of his hay were stolen, Sheriff Whittington swung into action. He planted a portable GPS vehicle tracker in one of the farmer's bales and waited for the thieves to strike again. They did.