Miniature and inexpensive data loggers are great tools for tagging wildlife and fish for behavioral studies and identify patterns. Construction of infrastructure often requires environmental studies to identify how and when the living species will be affected. Knowing their behavior is a good way to protect them.
Fisheries are greatly affected by global warming. Small implantable data loggers can be used to see if salmonids are able to find sufficient cool spot along a river system. Telemetry emitters glued to the data logger offers a good possibility to recover the tag toward the end of the study. For large fish, the data logger can be mounted on the dorsal fin with two nickel pins. A message such as “REWARD please call 123-456-7890” will help on the recovery of the tag by fishermen.
Wildlife behavior patterns can be identified with very small temperature data logger implanted in the abdominal cavity. One small operation must be done to insert the logger, and since the missioning and data downloading of the tag can be done through the body tissues, there is no need to operate a second time to remove the tag to get to the data. This is particularly useful for the snakes that cannot be operated more than three times. Temperature will give information on torpor states for warm blooded animals and basking history for cold blooded reptiles.
Our lightest temperature data loggers can be glued on the back of small bats to study their hibernation patterns. Skin bond latex adhesive works well for this purpose. A hibernating bat will have its wings wrapped around its body to keep itself warm. When awakened and flying in the cave, the logger will measure and log the sudden decrease of temperature. Every downward peak indicates a waken state and gives a good indication of how much a bat loose energy during the winter.
To study bird nesting behavior, temperature and light are good indicators. A small logger hidden inside the nest will record the nest temperature and the light sensor will allow detection whenever the bird is covering the eggs.
Laboratory mice or small mammals used to evaluate the effects of drugs and pathogens can be tagged with the WeeDip miniature temperature data logger. With a very high resolution, these devices can be used to detect very small increase of body temperature caused by the reaction of the metabolism to any stressors.
Contact us to get more information for your specific requirements.