Colleagues remember one of world's best bird trackers

A man described as one of the best bird trackers in the world is being remembered this week after he was struck and killed by a freight train in a DuPage County forest preserve.

Arlo Raim, 67, of Danville, tracked animals all over the world and was monitoring the impact of additional Canadian National Railway trains on wildlife in Pratt's Wayne Woods.

Raim was hit by a southbound Canadian National freight train about 7:30 a.m. Friday in the preserve near Bartlett, CN spokesman Patrick Waldron said.

"He was one of, if not the best, bird trackers in the world," said Michael Ward, director of the critical trends assessment program at the Illinois Natural History Survey and one of Raim's supervisors. "He had used radio telemetry to track animals as varied as peregrine falcons, coyotes, turtles and northern cardinals."

The Illinois Natural History Survey, which is based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was hired by CN to survey the area.

Waldron said Raim was not authorized to be on the tracks.

"Over the last 30 years he, in his station wagon with antennas on top, has been a common sight on the roads of central Illinois," Ward said. "Over the course of his career he tracked animals throughout North and Central America."

Raim worked for the Illinois Natural History Survey for 35 years and was an expert in radio telemetry, or the radio tracking of animals.

Natural History Survey spokeswoman Libby Johnston said Raim's work with crows in 2002 helped researchers in Chicago better understand why West Nile virus spread so quickly.

"He was a tireless worker who was completely committed to his job and therefore to a better understanding of the behavior of wildlife, especially birds," Ward said.

Dawn Domrose, public information officer of the DuPage County Sheriff's Office, said police were contacted at 10:45 a.m. Friday regarding the death and are continuing their investigation.

"We do a lot of education and stress that no one should be on railroad tracks," Waldron said.