The design and testing of linen thread weak-links in brushtail possum radio-collars
Lisa Cawthen A B C D and Sarah Munks A B CA Tasmanian Forest Practices Authority, 30 Patrick Street, North Hobart, Tas. 7000, Australia.
B Cooperative Research Centre for Forestry, Private Bag 12, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia.
C University of Tasmania, School of Zoology, Private Bag 5, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: lcawthen@utas.edu.au
Australian Mammalogy 33(1) 33-35 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM10024
Submitted: 26 July 2010 Accepted: 14 January 2011 Published: 23 March 2011
Abstract
Linen thread was built into radio-collars as a weak-link to trial its effectiveness at ensuring that radio-collars did not remain indefinitely on animals if they were not recaptured. Eighty percent of collars with weak-links broke or degraded, resulting in the collars dropping off within 12–45 days. This method may be useful for short-term studies of some species of mammal that are difficult to recapture in order to remove collars.
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