Integrated System of Radio-Frequency Identifier Equipment

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Within species, individuals vary widely in their behaviour, morphology, and physiology. This individual variation has consequences for larger scale processes including population dynamics, species interactions, and the extent to which populations within a landscape are connected. Understanding the effects of individual-level variation on these higher order processes requires that researchers are able to reliably identify individuals without affecting the behaviour or physiological performance of these individuals. This is an especially challenging issue for research on free-ranging animals. In this context there have been relatively few methods that can balance the trade-offs between reliable detection and altering the individual's survival in the wild. The use of radio-frequency identifiers (RFIDs) opens up new frontiers in our ability to reliably identify individuals without affecting their performance. RFID tags are small, lightweight, and inexpensive, facilitating their use with small animals. After the initial investment, this system can provide data for years to come with very small additional costs. These are passive tags, in contrast to systems such as radio-tracking which have internal batteries, and therefore can be used to track animals for much longer time periods as there are no battery life issues. This technology has the potential to rapidly transform our understanding of how individual variation affects processes across multiple levels of biological organization, from physiology to landscapes.