IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Habib, B.; Shrotriya, S.; Sivakumar, K.; Mathur, V.B.; Sinha, P.R. | |
| Radio Telemetry Studies in India - Issues and Way Forward | |
| 2010 Series | |
Radio-telemetry was first introduced in India in 1976. Since then telemetry technology has advanced significantly and has been used to study a wide array of animal species in different habitats. We have reviewed information obtained from 76 studies conducted so far in India using telemetry and evaluated the performance of the transmitters used, mainly for their functional success. we have reviewed the tracking histories of 455 animals from four major taxa: Mammalia (28 species), Aves (11 species), Reptilia (7 species) and Pisces (1 species). The transmitters used in the studies were of 6 types: conventional VHF collars, 82 Argos-only tags, 15 GPS-Argos collars, 4 GPS-Irdium collars, 8 GPS-ground download collars and 5 GPS-GSM collars. These transmitters were from 13 companies, with Telonics (n=119), Sirtrack (n=71), Advanced Telemetry Systems (m=46). Wildlife Materials (n=30), AVM Instruments (n=24) and Vectronics (n=13), being the major suppliers. Of 328 different collars/tags checked for failure during use, problems had been encountered with 161 collars/tags, i.e. 49% of the total number of collars used. Other issues related to telemetry studies, namely the efficiency of equipment, cost considerations, appropriateness of studies, animal handling and care, permissions, need for national guidelines and future directions, are discussed in this paper. |
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