WildTrack: An IoT System for Tracking Passive-RFID Microchipped Wildlife for Ecology Research
Robert Ross, Ben Anderson, B. Bienvenu, Emily L. Scicluna, Kylie A. Robert
Abstract
Wildlife tracking is used to acquire information on the movement, behaviour and survival of animals in their natural habitat for a wide range of ecological questions. However, tracking and monitoring free-ranging animals in the field is typically labour-intensive and particularly difficult in species that are small, cryptic, or hard to re-capture. In this paper, we describe and evaluate an Internet-of-Things (IoT)-based tracking system which automatically logs detected passive RFID tags and uploads them to the cloud. This system was successfully evaluated with 90 sensor modules deployed in a 30 ha wildlife sanctuary to monitor a small nocturnal mammal of less than 20 g in body size.