Abstract
We tested the possibility and feasibility of assembling Arduino GPS trackers without previous engineering experience and modified them for upland game birds under extreme environmental conditions. Low-cost GPS trackers were assembled and deployed on ring-necked pheasants Phasianus colchicus in conjunction with an ongoing winter survival study. To assess GPS receiver accuracy, we deployed trackers in a static test. The static test fix rate was 1.0, median error was 2.5 m and mean error was 13.3 m (SD = 39.5). During the mobile test, wild pheasants were captured using walk-in funnel traps baited with corn from January to March 2019. During winter, 407 VHF locations and 1574 GPS locations of 35 individuals were collected, resulting in a 287% increase in data density at only 23% increase in cost. The fix rate during the mobile test averaged to 0.83. To determine if trackers were low-cost, we calculated cumulative costs of equipment and supplies required to recreate the GPS tracking unit. GPS costs were $47.60 per unit with an additional $202.00 for the supplemental VHF transmitter.
Highlights
BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research
The development or modification of global positioning system (GPS) trackers has numerous advantages for wildlife management including: 1) an increase in the number of studies with high-resolution locational data to understand wildlife spatial ecology and create better management guidelines; 2) the ability of researchers to design wildlife trackers with functionality customized to specific research designs and needs; and 3) competition of modified tracking devices with commercially available GPS devices which should drive down costs and increase technological innovation resulting in greater functionality in tracking devices at lower costs (Cagnacci et al 2010)
Common inaccuracies associated with GPS telemetry are locational error and missing data that differ between GPS models, physical obstruction and canopy coverage (D’Eon and Delparte 2005, Cargnelutti et al 2007, Hansen and Riggs 2008, Blackie 2010, Dennis et al 2010)
Summary
BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. Technological advances in global positioning system (GPS) tracking devices for wildlife have made collecting high-resolution movement data possible. Applications of high-resolution data requiring high spatial accuracy and fine temporal density include state–space and Brownian bridge movement models (Anderson-Sprecher and Ledolter 1991, Horne et al 2007b). Such high-resolution spatial and temporal data is facilitated with GPS technologies (Guthrie et al 2011). Low-budget projects must choose between relatively low-resolution data collection with the use of many, less-costly, very high frequency (VHF) transmitters or high-resolution data collection with fewer, more expensive GPS receivers creating overall limitations on sample size (Cain and Cross 2018)
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