Animal lifestyle affects acceptable mass limits for attached tags. Issue 1961 (27th October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wilson, Rory P.; Rose, Kayleigh A.; Gunner, Richard; Holton, Mark D.; Marks, Nikki J.; Bennett, Nigel C.; Bell, Stephen H.; Twining, Joshua P.; Hesketh, Jamie; Duarte, Carlos M.; Bezodis, Neil; Jezek, Milos; Painter, Michael; Silovsky, Vaclav; Crofoot, Margaret C.; Harel, Roi; Arnould, John P. Y.; Allan, Blake M.; Whisson, Desley A.; Alagaili, Abdulaziz; Scantlebury, D. Michael
• Is Part Of: Proceedings. Volume 288:Issue 1961(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-10-27
• Subjects: collar design -- detriment -- ethics -- guidelines -- tag mass; Biology -- Periodicals; 570.5
• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2005
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0962-8452

Abstract

Abstract : Animal-attached devices have transformed our understanding of vertebrate ecology. To minimize any associated harm, researchers have long advocated that tag masses should not exceed 3% of carrier body mass. However, this ignores tag forces resulting from animal movement. Using data from collar-attached accelerometers on 10 diverse free-ranging terrestrial species from koalas to cheetahs, we detail a tag-based acceleration method to clarify acceptable tag mass limits. We quantify animal athleticism in terms of fractions of animal movement time devoted to different collar-recorded accelerations and convert those accelerations to forces (acceleration × tag mass) to allow derivation of any defined force limits for specified fractions of any animal's active time. Specifying that tags should exert forces that are less than 3% of the gravitational force exerted on the animal's body for 95% of the time led to corrected tag masses that should constitute between 1.6% and 2.98% of carrier mass, depending on athleticism. Strikingly, in four carnivore species encompassing two orders of magnitude in mass ( ca 2–200 kg), forces exerted by '3%' tags were equivalent to 4–19% of carrier body mass during moving, with a maximum of 54% in a hunting cheetah. This fundamentally changes how acceptable tag mass limits should be determined by ethics bodies, irrespective of the force and time limits specified.