Hi All,

I'm working on a project that might require some tech work and as of yet am not a 'tech person' so have been pointed in this direction. It's a pretty common problem that some animals are too small for certain tracking tech; my study species is a lizard SVL 60-90mm, weight 6-11g. RFID came up as an option with studies using tags on very small animals such as wasps - though detection range was limited to around 3cm. 

More context; we know very little about the species ecology as they are currently living in remnant, non-native habitat, and cryptic so hard to observe. We'd like to do a semi-wild experimental set-up in the field investigating which native habitat types they might be happy to live in if translocated - probably offering small patches of temporary plantings - and as they're known to spend most of their time below vegetation it's difficult to observe, and fluro-powder tends to get rubbed away/becomes difficult to follow in dense vegetation. Considering setting up some kind of detecting array that could monitor the movements of lizards temporarily fitted (glued) with small RFID tags; issue is largely what tech to go for and how effective it would really be, especially if the range is very limited? Can we just get a big aerial or cable-grid/strips similar to use in fisheries or is the issue all in the tag size? I've had contradictory chats with people about how the tech actually works and what is possible so I'm getting a bit confused...

Any insight welcomed, even if to say we're barking up the wrong tree entirely... thanks!