We can build the wildlife tag you want for the species you need to study. Depending on your needs and scientific or practical questions we can help you with choosing the proper technology using classic VHF or GPS based trackers with remote download or data transmission with GSM, Iridium, Globalstar or with the new local LoRa network. See for more information our page “Tagging wildlife“.
For the Reticulated Giraffe Project we have build GPS GSM trackers with solar panels on top of the enclosure. We design and 3D print enclosures ourselves. It was great to see the data come in on our own PC in our Leeuwarden office all the way from Kenia.
We managed to build a very small, lightweight (only 18 grams) GPS GSM transmitter for sousliks or European ground squirrels (Spermophilus citellus). Mostly batteries are the limiting part in the weight of a transmitter. In this case we were fortunately dealing with a diurnal mammal, which made it possible to use small high quality solar cells in combination with a super capacitor and small LiPo battery reducing the weight to an absolute minimum. The photos show our miniature GPS GSM tracker of only 25.2 x 17.2 mm and the lid of the enclosure with the solar panels and a flat, very sensitive, active GPS PCB antenna.
For Lorenzo Quaglietta we produced our first GPS GSM transmitter for otters in Portugal. Together with him we managed to tag several otters with an external light-weight, leather harness as is shown on the photos. Later on we have successfully deployed the same GPS GSM transmitters on otters in Norway, Denmark and Ireland.