Realising a game changer in tagging wild animals; stress-free instrumentation of the program 'Experiment'

Project description

Tagging wild animals is important to investigate their behaviour and habitat use. The project "Realising a game changer in tagging wild animals; stress-free instrumentation" is part of the funding initiative ‚Experiment‘ of the Volkswagen Foundation. Its goal is to achieve a less stressful tagging experience for wild animals. To this end, so-called self-affixing smart tags are under development. For this, animals do not need to be caught and immobilized, but they can nevertheless be equipped with new hi-tech devices that inform researchers about their habits. Smart tags are undergoing testing in, and customisation for, several different species. The goal is to reduce any stress experienced by animals while being outfitted with transmitters to make this process more animal-friendly. Another advantage is that data recorded after tagging are immediately usable, rather than researchers having to discard initial data because the animal is behaving aberrantly following capture. Indeed, after attaching the types of transmitters used to date, animals usually display abnormal behaviour, which can lead to considerable deviations in measured data and even to the tagged animal leaving its usual habitat. Animal tagging is employed in many research projects worldwide. The collected data provide information about how animals live, their use of space, energy expenditure, behaviour, and even emotional states. Thus, they provide important information for protection and management. Indeed, such is the power of the approach that it has progressed to a distinct discipline called biologging.