A trial of satellite GPS telemetry on feral pigs in tropical mountain rainforest
Jörn Theuerkauf
A * , Patrick Barrière B , Ken Cadin B and Roman Gula A
A Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wilcza 64, Warsaw 00-679, Poland.
B Conservatoire d’espaces naturels, BP 10, Koné 98860, New Caledonia.
Australian Mammalogy 45(1) 121-124 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM22015
Submitted: 18 February 2022 Accepted: 12 July 2022 Published: 29 July 2022
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society.
Abstract
We deployed two GPS collars and one innovative harness-mounted GPS backpack with Iridium or Globalstar satellite data transmission on feral pigs in mountain rainforest with deep valleys in New Caledonia during the hot wet season. Both collar and backpack with Iridium transmission achieved high success rates of locations and the rate increased with decreasing interval length between locations. The collar with Globalstar transmission had very low fix rates at 13-h intervals and was insufficient to produce robust results. The backpack harness was still functional after 20 months of use and proved to be a reliable alternative to collars.
Keywords: activity pattern, activity rhythm, daily range, distance travelled, home range, invasive mammal, New Caledonia, Pacific Island, radiotracking, radiotracking interval, Sus scrofa.
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