A New Method for Attaching Electronic Devices to Crocodilians

摘要

Despite the potential importance of movement patterns to crocodilian life histories; movement, home range behavior and dispersal have received careful examination only in Alligator mississippiensis (Hutton 1989). Data for other species of crocodilian are deficient and stem mostly from mark-recapture studies, which have provided baseline information on many species (e.g., Gorzula 1978; Walsh and Whitehead 1993; Webb and Messel 1978; Tucker et al. 1997). However, telemetry is more suitable for clarifying theories about patterns of movement and advancing our understanding of dynamic activity budgets and seasonal patterns of habitat use by different life-history stages (Tucker et al. 1997). Radio-telemetry has been used successfully to track A. mississippiensis (e.g. Joanen and McNease 1970, 1972; McNease and Joanen 1974; Goodwin and Marion 1979; Rootes and Chabreck 1993), Crocodylus acutus (Rodda 1984a), Crocodylus niloticus (Hutton 1989; Hocutt et al. 1992), Crocodylus intermedius (Munoz and Thorbjarnarson 2000), Paleosuchus trigonatus (Magnusson and Lima 1991), and Melanosuchus niger (Martin and da Silva 1998). Attachment configurations for radio tags have included neck collars (e.g. ,Joanen and McNease 1970), tethering (Rodda 1984a; Rodda 1984b; Martin and da Silva 1998; Munoz and Thorbjarnarson 2000), ingestion (Magnusson and Lima 1991), and surgical implantation (Magnusson and Lima 1991; Hocutt et al. 1992). The most successful methods in terms of longevity have been neck collars (Taylor 1984) and surgical implantation (Hocutt et al. 1992), which have enabled animals to be radio located for periods in excess of 3 and 2 years, respectively. This paper describes a new method used for attaching VHF radio tags to Crocodylus porosus that could easily be modified to attach other electronic devices such as satellite tags, GPS data loggers or time-depth recorders.