A Comment on the Use of Radio Tracking in Ecological Research

Abstract

Radio tracking was widely heralded when it first appeared in ecology two decades ago, but in our opinion its use has seldom exploited its full potential. We suggest that this has been due less to drawbacks in the equipment than to how the technique has tended to be used. Perusal of the ecological literature suggests that many studies based on radio tracking have been mere descriptions of movements and activity, with no explicit hypothesis testing.