Wildlife research is a story often told in numbers. Among population numbers, territory sizes and incident reports, the data resulting from field work is best understood in large figures and visualizations.

Sometimes, however, a rare individual animal stands out for its significant contributions to conservancy.

Whether it's through years of data collection, repeated taggings, or sightings and unique movements, these individual animals give researchers a wealth of information about their entire species and the ways they interact with their environments. Were it not for these unique, reliable animals, our knowledge of the world's wildlife would be significantly behind where it is today.

We reached out to a few wildlife researchers and collected three individual animals who've made notable contributions to data collection and research .

Grizzly Bear #179

Image: Mark Gocke/ WGFD

In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), one 24-year-old female grizzly stands out for her lifelong contribution to research. She's grizzly bear #179, and the samples collected from her captures, along with the the data received from her GPS collars, have helped biologists like Dan Bjornlie better understand her species and their changing habitats.

"Since the mid-1980s, very few bears have been tracked for as long as 179," Bjornlie tells Mashable. "She has contributed greatly to grizzly bear recovery in the GYE, both from her reproductive contributions and contributions to the knowledge base of bears in the ecosystem."

Image: Mark Gocke/ WGFD

According to Bjornlie, 179 has raised 11 cubs to independence and produced nearly 3,000 telemetry locations through her collar-tracked movements. These movements give an abundance of information on how the animals respond to human development, changing habitats and ever-shifting bear populations.

Hope the Whimbrel

Image: Flickr, Hiyashi Haka

Hope the whimbrel is an Olympic legend in the body of a 17-inch-long shorebird. Tracked for more than 44,000 miles, her migration has given researchers a look inside her species' behavior and their movements.

"This bird has been a real champion and has showed us a lot about what these birds have been facing,” biologist Bryan Watts told Audobon Magazine.

Hope was tracked through multiple tropical storms via her 9.5 gram, $3,500 satellite transmitter, reaching flying speeds of 92 miles per hour and traveling without pause for more than 3,500 miles at a time. Watts told Mashable that Hope is somewhat of a celebrity and has an international following.

Scientists tracked a whimbrel named Hope off Nova Scotia, diving straight into the tempest at 7 mph & emerging from the other side at 90 mph

— glennkelman (@glennkelman) November 17, 2012

Orca K25

Image: Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

The Center for Whale Research in the Pacific Northwest has been keeping track of the entire southern resident population for more than 35 years. It keeps a photographic census of the orca population, recording the GPS location of their sightings as well as the whales with which they're traveling.

"We use this information to keep an almost real-time census of the population, and that information is then given to NOAA, which uses it for management," field biologist Erin Heydenreich says.

Members of K Pod, 1 of the Southern Resident #Orca pods, seen off Oak Bay by Researcher Mark Malleson. Here is K25. pic.twitter.com/8Soirv69yX

— Steveston Eco Tours (@Steveston_tours) December 12, 2013

Individual whales are periodically tagged to keep track of their movements and to learn how, and with whom, they travel. The whale that has maintained its tag the longest is a young adult male, known as K25.

"He has always seemed somewhat small for his age," Heydenreich tells Mashable. K25 was born in 1991 and has almost always traveled with the same group of orcas. The information received through his tag is extremely helpful in helping researchers like Heydenreich better understand how these whales interact with one another.

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