Herpetological Review 42(4), 2011
522 TECHNIQUES
Tracking animals provides a detailed picture of their be-
haviour and can be important in understanding their ecology.
Tracking is especially useful for elucidating the ecology of ani-
mals that are cryptic during all or parts of their life cycle (Heyer
et al. 1994; Langkilde and Alford 2002; Reynolds and Riley 2002).
Amphibians, for example, can be hard to study outside breed-
ing aggregations, and wildlife telemetry can provide insight on
otherwise unknown aspects of their biology (Heyer et al. 1994;
Naef-Daenzer 1993; Naef-Daenzer et al. 2005; Rowley and Alford
2007a, b, c; Rowley et al. 2007).
Tracking devices should be small and unobtrusive (Hamley
and Falls 1975; Heyer et al. 1994; Korpimaki et al. 1996; Ormings-
ton 1985). Many guidelines recommend that the mass of tracking
devices should not exceed between 5% (Wilson and McMahon
2006) and 10% (Blomquist and Hunter 2007; Gursky 1998; Rich-
ards et al. 1994) of the animal’s body mass, particularly when
tracking vertebrates. Package shape is also an important con-
sideration; devices must not impede the tracked animal’s move-
ment (Blomquist and Hunter 2007; Greenwood and Sargeant
1973; Wilson and McMahon 2006). Finally, devices should have
long useful lifespans, reducing the frequency of capture, han-
dling, and other potentially stressful procedures (Langkilde and
Alford 2002; Pereira et al. 2009). Tracking devices, therefore, typi-
cally reflect compromises among the needs for small size, low
mass, long life, and high durability.
Two main approaches can be taken to track animals using ra-
dio signals. Tracking using tags containing active radio transmit-
ters allows researchers to locate subjects and identify them indi-
vidually (Heyer et al. 1994; Indermaur et al. 2008; Naef-Daenzer
1993; Naef-Daenzer et al. 2005; Rowley et al. 2007), and may en-
able the retrieval of additional information, such as the subject’s
physiological status and local environmental conditions (Reyn-
olds et al. 2002), but the method is restricted to larger species
or individuals, due to the relatively high weight of the battery,
harness, and transmitter package (Langkilde and Alford 2002;
Naef-Daenzer 1993; Naef-Daenzer et al. 2005; Rowley and Alford
2007c). Currently, minimum body mass of animals tracked using
radio-transmitters is 2–4 g, based on a minimum package plus
harness mass of 0.2 g for the smallest available transmitters and
limitations to 5–10% of the body mass (Naef-Daenzer et al. 2005).
These extremely light tags have extremely short battery lives,
measured in days; this further restricts their usefulness in field
studies, where animals may require some time to return to nor-
mal behaviour following tag attachment (Langkilde and Alford
2002; Rowley et al. 2007).
It is also possible to use tags that do not contain their own
power sources. These tags fall into two categories: PIT (Passive
Integrated Transponder) tags and harmonic radar tags. PIT tags,
pattern recognition exclusively can still be a useful aid to indi-
vidual identification.
Acknowledgments.—We are grateful to Barley Van Clief and the
Pennsylvania Resource Council, Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research,
Fred and Cindy von Czoernig, and Michael and Angie Riska for al-
lowing us access to their property and springhouse. We especially
thank Kevin Fryberger for coordinating site visits and Jim White for
assistance with photography and field work. We also thank P. Adkins,
L. Allison, G. Colligan, K. J. Cutting, S. T. Dash, L. Deaner, M. DiBona,
R. Donovall, D. Egan, J. Evans, E. D. Farris, A. Hill, B. Jennings, M.
Johnston, A. J. Nazdrowicz, C. Rhoads, N. Watson, and S. Williamson
for assistance in the field. The research was funded by University of
Delaware.
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© 2011 by Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles
Very Small, Light Dipole Harmonic Tags for
Tracking Small Animals
ARNAUD GOURRET*
ROSS A. ALFORD
LIN SCHWARZKOPF
School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville,
Queensland 4811, Australia
*Corresponding author; e-mail: arnaud.gourret@my.jcu.edu.au