Open-source, low-cost modular GPS collars for monitoring and tracking wildlife

Monitoring the movements and behaviour of wildlife using radio telemetry or GPS devices has been critical to the fields of ecology and conservation over several decades. For many field projects however, commercially available devices can be expensive and may not always be ideally suited for collecting desired data. We present a low-cost solution of customizable tracking devices based on the open-source Arduino system. These devices can be custom designed for specific studies and easily programmed to collect desired data. Custom-built collars with GPS and accelerometer units were trialled on 30 free-ranging domestic dogs in rural Ethiopia. These collars collected high-resolution data at a frequency of 10 fixes per hour and accelerometer data at 10 Hz over a 10-day period, at a cost of approximately 100 pound ($130 USD) per collar. These devices can be placed on any species that can handle a weight of 15.4 g plus battery and housing. The current configuration weighs approximately 240 g which would be suitable for any animal above 8 kg living in terrestrial environments.