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discussion / Biologging  / 4 March 2024

Need tips on best practices tracking turtles

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Hi, 

I am working on a project that aims to track the movement of turtles in the Amazon. 

I would like to get tips mainly on what would be the best equipment regarding cost/benefit to track around 30 animals for one year. Are there ways to reuse old GPS tags? Any groups that would donate them?

Also, if you have experiences with things that did not work, please share. 

 

Thank you,

Gabriel



Craig Rackstraw
@craig
Director of Icoteq Ltd, an electronics and software design consultancy developing wireless products and solutions to organisations working in the conservation, wildlife monitoring and anti-poaching sectors. Developers of the TagRanger® novel wildlife tracking products.
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WILDLABS Event Speaker
Inventory editor level 1

6 March 2024 1:24pm

Hi Gabriel,

Our TagRanger Tags can be used for tracking turtles,  we already have a tracking project commencing soon in South America for ~40 turtles...

https://www.tagranger.com/  

The Tags use LoRaWAN allowing you to communicate with your Tags in real time.  As well as requesting current GPS locations from long distances away  (20km Line of Sight) you can also use the integrated ranging tools which give you distance to your Tag in metres when you get closer.  

Key features:

LoRaWAN (tested > 20km line of sight). Use a 'Finder' which is a handheld gateway or you can also use your own LoRaWAN network.

UWB ranging gives distance (in metres) to the Tag up to 150m away

Hybrid Ranging combines the equivalent of a VHF pinger from a few km away (line of sight) with the UWB ranging when you get closer

Log Download remotely using UWB radio

The Tag can last for very long lifetimes depending on how you configure it

Please drop me a line if you are interested in hearing more about this and how we could configure it best for your application.

Craig