The development and use of an automated cellular PIT tag reader system for assessing the activity patterns of the sungazer (smaug giganteus)

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dc.contributor.authorStanton-Jones, Wade
dc.date.accessioned2018-12-05T09:26:50Z
dc.date.available2018-12-05T09:26:50Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.descriptionA 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 2018en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThe 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.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianMT 2018en_ZA
dc.format.extentOnline resource (vi, c,64 leaves)
dc.identifier.citationStanton-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>
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/26179
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshRadio frequency identification systems
dc.subject.lcshMobile computing
dc.subject.lcshWireless communication systems
dc.titleThe development and use of an automated cellular PIT tag reader system for assessing the activity patterns of the sungazer (smaug giganteus)en_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
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