GPS tracking & telemetry

A tag or collar fitted to an animal that records or transmits its position at set intervals, sometimes with extra sensor readings.

Time-stamped location fixes per individual (a track), with fix quality, plus optional sensor data such as acceleration, temperature or altitude, and reference data about the animal, the tag and the deployment.

Movebank for managing, sharing and archiving tracks; the R package ctmm for movement and home-range analysis; GIS such as QGIS; EarthRanger for operational use in protected areas. All tools →

The Movebank data model and attribute dictionary are widely used for tracking data; derived occurrences can be expressed in Darwin Core.

Linking and keeping context. Positions only make sense with the reference data: which animal, which tag, when it was fitted and removed, and how reliable each fix is. Real-time positions of tracked animals are also highly sensitive and need strict access control (Urbano et al. 2010).

Choose tag type, fix interval and duration against your question and the animal's welfare; record every deployment.

Store raw downloads and transmissions unaltered, linked to the animal, tag and deployment records.

Flag outliers and low-quality fixes rather than deleting them; then analyse movement, home range or habitat use.

Share through Movebank with the access level you choose; delay or generalise positions of sensitive species.

Archive complete studies, including reference data, so tracks stay interpretable years later.