The development and use of an automated cellular PIT tag reader system for assessing the activity patterns of the sungazer (smaug giganteus)
Date
2018
Authors
Stanton-Jones, Wade
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The activities and movement patterns of animals have been of strong interest to researchers
for decades. The technological growth over the last few decades has resulted in studies on
animal activities presenting more accurate, reliable findings. As a result, very few studies still
use the conventional, direct observation technique to monitor activity patterns. Additionally,
there has been a growing interest in modern tracking equipment, especially the use of radiofrequency
identification (RFID) technologies. Typically, RFID systems only comprise of two
main components to monitor animal activities: the transponder tag which is fitted to an
animal either externally or subdermally, and the interrogator (reader) which
electromagnetically powers the transponder to read its unique identification code. The reader
itself can be handheld or automated. However, the automated reader systems (ARS) are
limited by storage capacity of the datalogger and still require a researcher to actively attend to
the system to download the captured data. In light of this, the first aim of this study was to
develop an automated cellular reader system (ACRS) that enables completely remote access
to data at any given time, from any electronic device with internet connectivity. The second
aim was to implement the newly designed system in an assessment of the activity patterns of
Sungazers over two seasons, winter and spring. I followed the FDX-A protocol to develop an
autonomous reader capable of reading 125 kHz passive integrated transponder tags (PITs),
which were subdermally injected into 58 Sungazers (Smaug giganteus), a species known to
be highly sedentary. I developed 12 ACRSs which were each fitted with a cellphone engine
in which a SIM card was installed in each reader and loaded with data and airtime, monthly,
for the 6-month duration of the study. The reading antennas were fitted around the
circumferences of 12 Sungazer burrows and the activity patterns of the Sungazers were
monitored. The ACRSs provided a 98.5% success rate in their ability to report on the
emergence and retreating activities of Sungazers. The ACRSs recorded data from 10
Sungazers. Six Sungazers were active for 37.3% of the days during the winter months,
displayed significantly less frequent shuttling behaviours, and showed higher variation in the
proportion of the duration of daily activity above ground during this time compared to spring.
Male Sungazers visited neighbour burrows significantly more frequently than did females but
both sexes displayed high site fidelity. The findings of this study suggest that activity of a
portion of the population of Sungazers during winter could be a behavioural response to
infection. The increased movements of male Sungazers suggests that spring is the mating
season of Sungazers. Finally, the development of the ACRSs have provided insightful
information on the activity patterns of Sungazers and the results suggest that Sungazers
display seasonal variation in terms of activity. The ACRSs were able to function maintenance
free for the duration of the study period and can easily be adapted to studies on other animals.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Science
May 2018
Keywords
Citation
Stanton-Jones, Wade Keith (2018) The development and use of an automated cellular PIT tag reader system for assessing the activity patterns of the sungazer (smaug giganteus), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/26179>