Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-23T13:23:38.010Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New GPS technology improves fix success for large mammal collars in dense tropical forests

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

Mathias W. Tobler
Mathias W. Tobler*
Affiliation:
Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program, Botanical Research Institute of Texas, 500 E 4th Street, Fort Worth, TX, 76102, and Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
*
1Corresponding author. Email: matobler@brit.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There have been few telemetry studies on large and medium-sized mammals from Neotropical lowland forests. This can partly be explained by the difficulty of tracking animals with radio-telemetry in these forests, often in remote areas with poor access due to limited transportation infrastructure. Researchers have been forced to follow their collared animals by aeroplane (Crawshaw 1995, Fragoso 1998, Rabinowitz & Nottingham 1986), but aerial telemetry is dangerous and involves difficult logistics and high costs. GPS (Global Positioning System) collars that allow the collection of data automatically at long intervals would be a good alternative. The effect of canopy cover on GPS fix success and location accuracy was of concern from the beginning and has been widely investigated in temperate forests (D'Eon 2003, Di Orio et al. 2003, Dussault et al. 1999, Moen et al. 1996, Rempel et al. 1995). All studies found a significant decrease in fix success and a large increase in location errors under forest canopy. Tropical lowland rain forests have a much denser canopy than temperate forests, and up to now the performance of GPS collars in tropical forest has been very poor. Rumiz & Venegas (2006) showed that while GPS collars worked in the dry forest of the Bolivian Chaco, they only obtained a successful fix in 1–3% of all attempts in the lowland forest of the Madidi National Park, Bolivia.

Keywords

Amazondata screeningfix successGPS collarlocation errortapirtracktag
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , March 2009 , pp. 217 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

CARGNELUTTI, B., COULON, A., HEWISON, A. J. M., GOULARD, M., ANGIBAULT, J. M. & MORELLET, N. 2007. Testing Global Positioning System performance for wildlife monitoring using mobile collars and known reference points. Journal of Wildlife Management 71:1380–1387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CRAWSHAW, P. G. 1995. Comparative ecology of ocelot (Felis pardalis) and jaguar (Panthera onca) in a protected subtropical forest in Brazil and Argentina. Ph.D. thesis, University of Florida, Gainsville.Google Scholar
D'EON, R. G. 2003. Effects of a stationary GPS fix-rate bias on habitat selection analyses. Journal of Wildlife Management 67:858–863.Google Scholar
D'EON, R. G. & DELPARTE, D. 2005. Effects of radio-collar position and orientation on GPS radio-collar performance, and the implications of PDOP in data screening. Journal of Applied Ecology 42:383–388.Google Scholar
DI ORIO, A. P., CALLAS, R. & SCHAEFER, R. J. 2003. Performance of two GPS telemetry collars under different habitat conditions. Wildlife Society Bulletin 31:372–379.Google Scholar
DUSSAULT, C., COURTOIS, R., OUELLET, J. P. & HUOT, J. 1999. Evaluation of GPS telemetry collar performance for habitat studies in the boreal forest. Wildlife Society Bulletin 27:965–972.Google Scholar
DUSSAULT, C., COURTOIS, R., OUELLET, J. P. & HUOT, J. 2001. Influence of satellite geometry and differential correction on GPS location accuracy. Wildlife Society Bulletin 29:171–179.Google Scholar
FRAGOSO, J. M. V. 1998. Home range and movement patterns of white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) herds in the northern Brazilian Amazon. Biotropica 30:458–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FRAIR, J. L., NIELSEN, S. E., MERRILL, E. H., LELE, S. R., BOYCE, M. S., MUNRO, R. H. M., STENHOUSE, G. B. & BEYER, H. L. 2004. Removing GPS collar bias in habitat selection studies. Journal of Applied Ecology 41:201–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LEWIS, J. S., RACHLOW, J. L., GARTON, E. O. & VIERLING, L. A. 2007. Effects of habitat on GPS collar performance: using data screening to reduce location error. Journal of Applied Ecology 44:663–671.Google Scholar
MACLEAN, G. 2009. Weak GPS signal detection in animal tracking. Journal of Navigation 62:1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MOEN, R., PASTOR, J., COHEN, Y. & SCHWARTZ, C. C. 1996. Effects of moose movement and habitat use on GPS collar performance. Journal of Wildlife Management 60:659–668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MOEN, R., PASTOR, J. & COHEN, Y. 1997. Accuracy of GPS telemetry collar locations with differential correction. Journal of Wildlife Management 61:530–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OLSON, D. M., DINERSTEIN, E., WIKRAMANAYAKE, E. D., BURGESS, N. D., POWELL, G. V. N., UNDERWOOD, E. C., D'AMICO, J. A., ITOUA, I., STRAND, H. E., MORRISON, J. C., LOUCKS, C. J., ALLNUTT, T. F., RICKETTS, T. H., KURA, Y., LAMOREUX, J. F., WETTENGEL, W. W., HEDAO, P. & KASSEM, K. R. 2001. Terrestrial ecoregions of the worlds: a new map of life on Earth. Bioscience 51:933–938.Google Scholar
RABINOWITZ, A. R. & NOTTINGHAM, B. G. 1986. Ecology and behavior of the jaguar (Panthera onca) in Belize, Central America. Journal of Zoology 210:149–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
REMPEL, R. S., RODGERS, A. R. & ABRAHAM, K. F. 1995. Performance of a GPS animal location system under boreal forest canopy. Journal of Wildlife Management 59:543–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RUMIZ, D. I. & VENEGAS, C. 2006. Exploración de datos de radio-collares GPS en pecaríes ¿Qué podemos aprender de una muestra de n = 4? Suiform Soundings 6:38–44.Google Scholar
SAGER-FRADKIN, K. A., JENKINS, K. J., HOFFMAN, R. A., HAPPE, P. J., BEECHAM, J. J. & WRIGHT, R. G. 2007. Fix success and accuracy of global positioning system collars in old-growth temperate coniferous forests. Journal of Wildlife Management 71:1298–1308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar