Hi Emily, 

Signposting a few other convos and resources that might be useful while we wait for some folks to chime in!  

Vikram's work might be helpful, he's super lovely and I'm sure he'd be happy to answer questions or speak with you if you think it's a path to go down 

If you decide to go down the RFID route, there are quite a few convos if you drop RFID into our search - here's one with lots of advice that might be helpful:  

I also swear there was someone in Kate Jone's lab who was popping tiny tags on locusts, @TaliaSpeaker who did that photo belong to? 

Steph  

Hi Emily, I think, as you've pointed out, the read range of any tag you use is going to be pretty small. For example, the tags from Sparkfun linked to below have a read range of about 'one inch'. Alternatively, given the weight of your lizards (soooo tiny!) you could potentially consider very small VHF tags like the LB-2X from Holohil. Looking at about 2-3 weeks of battery life, but it would mean you could potentially, more easily track their movements (for example). Happy to discuss and all the best for your research.

Rob

Hi again Emily,

@tom_august just pointed to this PhD thesis in another post that could be of interest to you also:

All the best,

Rob

Looks like you want to have a read of this thread: 

Hey Ruth, 

Can you post photos of the "wing-tags" that you are referencing and/or perhaps a link? The smallest satellite transmitter that exists today is about 2-3g in weight and really quite small. In theory, I don't see why it couldn't work...

These are really small acoustic tags. (Lotek Wireless, Sonotronics, and the JSATs design are examples of similar manufacturers/products.) These tags will only work in water because they require water in order to propagate their signal. Of course that means you need receivers in order to pick up the signal, so usually organizations will have a string or strings of strategically placed receivers to pick up the acoustic tags (mouths of rivers is a common location). I think the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) operates some of the largest sets of receivers. Others are managed by the institution themselves, various regional IOOS offices, and/or similar. 

They could work on really small sea turtles, but you are limited to tracking them based on the range of the receivers (which for smaller tags is even more limited, measured in meters or hundreds of meters). Lotek Wireless recently started producing their "Sunbird" line which has been used on some relatively small turtles. You can look at the work that Upwell is doing as an example of satellite-based tracking with very small turtles. 

Birds...out of the question : ( 

Hi Huascar!

I have no experience with tracking snakes.

If I was you, I would start by having a look at a goggle scholar search like this:

Another place to ask for advice from experienced users would be to find some snake tracking researchers on 

Good luck!

Hi Huascar, how are you? there's limitations on snakes since their body form and behaviour, if you leave a VHF or GPS tag as an external fixation it will get tangled with roths and branches and it will fall, besides you have to suture and it can cause infections.

So far you only got implanted VHF transmitters, that's the most common, lonlasting and safe fixation method.

There's an alternative of using Tegaderm as a external fixation method but with ecdysis will eventually remove it.

any doubts please write me [email protected]