GPS Tracking For Wildlife

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By: Ryan Horban

Key Takeaways
5 things GPS tracking technology has made possible in wildlife conservation
  • 01

    VHF, satellite, and GPS each solve a different problem, and many studies run more than one

  • 02

    Collar data has redrawn maps, funded wildlife overpasses, and changed where states allow development

  • 03

    Tags now start around 2 grams, which brought small birds into studies that once excluded them

  • 04

    Geofence alerts reach rangers before a herd reaches a village, turning records into prevention

  • 05

    Weight limits and mounting method are ethics questions first, and engineering questions second

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I'm Ryan Horban. For the last 15 years I've worked with GPS vehicle trackers and fleet tracking systems. Wildlife tracking is a different world. The problems underneath it are not.

How often does the device report? How long does the power hold out? What happens when something crosses a line it shouldn't? Those three questions shape my week. They also shape a caribou study in the Arctic.

What follows is a plain walk through the field. What wildlife tracking is, why it changed conservation, and how researchers actually do the work. Every factual claim below links to where it came from.

What this guide covers
01

What wildlife tracking isWhere it came from, and how it got from radio beeps to satellites.

02

Why it mattersTold through one migration route in Wyoming that ended in concrete.

03

The three technologiesVHF, satellite and GPS, and what each one is actually good for.

04

How a study runsFrom permits and capture through to published data.

05

What gets attachedCollars, harnesses, implants, and the contested rules on weight.

06

Where the data goesIncluding the geofence alerts that protect elephant herds.

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What Wildlife Tracking Actually Is

Telemetry

Measuring something from a distance and getting the reading back. The animal carries the instrument. The researcher reads it from somewhere else. Sometimes that means a hillside. Sometimes it means another continent.

The idea is old. Biologists began fitting animals with VHF radio transmitters in the 1960s. That worked, but it was hard labor. Someone had to walk the habitat with a receiver until the beeping got louder.

Satellites changed the arithmetic. NOAA and the French space agency CNES have run Argos since 1974. Its satellites circle the globe 14 times a day. Suddenly an animal could be tracked from orbit. Nobody had to be within earshot.

Early satellite transmitters were brutes. The first ones weighed 5 to 11 kilograms, which limited them to large mammals. Everything since has been a story about shrinking.

5 to 11 kg

1970s, large mammals only

110 g

Late 1980s

30 g

Late 1990s

2 g

Today, small birds included

Then GPS arrived and flipped the relationship. Instead of the animal shouting upward, the tag listens. It works out its own position, then stores or sends it.

Why Any of This Matters

Here's the honest answer. Tracking data changes what governments are willing to protect.

Take one route in western Wyoming. In the late 1990s, nobody knew how pronghorn reached Grand Teton National Park from the Green River Basin. The animals vanished into the high country every spring. Where they went was a genuine mystery.

  • 1998Researchers collar 35 pronghorn with VHF units. Biologist Hall Sawyer spends the following spring following tracks through snow and dirt with his dog.
  • 2003GPS collars go on the Sublette Antelope Herd for the first time. The route can finally be mapped without anyone chasing it.
  • 2008Bridger-Teton National Forest formally protects the corridor and names it the Path of the Pronghorn.
  • 2013Wyoming's transportation department builds two overpasses and six underpasses on Highway 191. Pronghorn dislike underpasses, so the overpasses were a first for the state.
  • 2026State-level protections for the Sublette Antelope Migration Corridor are announced, after years of contested review.

Timeline from Wyoming News coverage of the Path of the Pronghorn.

Read that sequence again. Thirty-five collars in 1998 eventually became concrete overpasses and a legal designation. That is the whole argument for this technology in one story.

The data also piles up. Movebank, hosted by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, is where much of it lives. Its public repository held 466 million locations from nearly 18,000 animals as of January 2025. The wider live database is far bigger again.

466 million

Archived animal locations in Movebank's public repository, covering 260 species and underpinning close to 400 peer-reviewed papers.

Source: Movebank Data Repository

The Three Technologies Behind Wildlife Tracking

Three approaches dominate. Picking between them comes down to three things. How far the animal ranges. How much the tag may weigh. Whether anyone needs the data today or in October.

SHORT RANGE

VHF Radio

The oldest method still in daily use. A small transmitter pulses, and a researcher with a handheld antenna narrows in. Nothing beats it on cost or weight. The catch is obvious. Somebody has to be nearby, which makes covering ground slow and expensive.

GLOBAL

Satellite Telemetry

The tag transmits upward. Polar-orbiting satellites work out where it was from the Doppler shift in that signal. Accuracy is coarser than GPS. Coverage is the trade you get in return, and it reaches everywhere. Argos now serves tags as light as 2 grams across roughly 3,500 bird species.

PRECISE

GPS

Here the tag receives rather than transmits. It computes its own fix from the GPS constellation, then stores or relays it. Accuracy tightens sharply and the track gets dense. Solar panels pushed the size down far enough for birds. The data still needs a way home.

Technology How it works Best suited to
VHF radio tracking A transmitter on the animal emits a signal. A researcher locates it by antenna, which means getting close. Close-range work, and dense terrain where satellite signals struggle.
Satellite tracking The tag transmits to orbiting satellites. Position is computed on the ground and relayed to the researcher. Migratory species crossing oceans or continents, with no field team in range.
GPS tracking A receiver on the animal calculates its own position, then stores or transmits the result. Fine-grained movement studies, and with solar power, even small birds.

Comparison adapted from New Hampshire PBS on wildlife tracking.

How a Tracking Study Actually Runs

Every project moves through the same five stages. A bull elephant and a migrating songbird share the sequence, if nothing else.

  1. 1
    Permits, then capture. Agencies license the capture and the tagging before anything happens. The animal is caught, handled, fitted, and released. This is the riskiest part of any study, and the part researchers work hardest to shorten.
  2. 2
    Collecting the data. The tag fixes its position on a schedule. Most units log a second stream alongside it. Temperature, activity, and on marine tags, dive depth.
  3. 3
    Getting it home. Data travels over a satellite or cellular link. Or it waits on the device until a team is close enough to pull it wirelessly. Or the tag has to be physically recovered.
  4. 4
    Reading the tracks. Analysts look for behavior, migration timing, and habitat use. The same file can feed a twenty-year corridor study and a same-day ranger callout.
  5. 5
    Publishing and archiving. Results go into papers, and increasingly into shared repositories. Naming a tracked animal and following its journey also builds the public support that funds the next season.

Money shapes all of it. A satellite transmitter runs several thousand dollars, plus annual data fees. Capture, permits, and field time land on top. A study with three tagged animals tells you about three animals.

What Gets Attached, and What It May Weigh

No single mounting method works across species. Get it wrong and the study measures its own interference.

Collars

Standard for large mammals. The strap carries electronics, battery, and antenna. Fit has to allow for an animal gaining and losing condition across a year.

Harnesses and backpacks

Birds carry a light tag between the wings on a soft harness. Solar cells usually sit on top. Without them, a unit never survives a full migration.

Glued and implanted tags

Fish and seals offer nothing to strap onto. Tags get glued to fur or shell, or implanted. Pop-up satellite tags detach on a set date and float up to transmit.

Drop-off mechanisms

A timed release drops the collar on a chosen date. The team recovers a full dataset without sedating the animal a second time.

Then there's weight, which is where the ethics live. The working guideline caps a tag at 3% of a bird's body mass, and around 5% for bats. So a 30-gram songbird gets a tag under a gram. Harness material counts toward that total.

Useful rule. Also, increasingly, a contested one.

Where the 3% rule breaks down

A team led by Rory Wilson put accelerometers on collars across ten species, from koalas to cheetahs. They found the 3% figure ignores the forces a moving animal actually experiences. In four carnivore species, a compliant tag exerted force equal to 4 to 19% of body mass while moving. In a hunting cheetah, that peaked at 54%.

Mass is easy to measure. Force is what the animal feels. The field is still working out what to do about the gap.

Geofencing works the same way on your own vehicle. Draw a boundary, get a message when the car crosses it.

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Where the Data Goes, and What It Prevents

A track sitting in a database is a research record. Push the same track through a boundary rule and it becomes a warning. That shift is the interesting part.

Three programs show the shift, at three different scales.

KENYA

Save the Elephants

A virtual fence line gets programmed into the collar of a known crop-raiding elephant. Cross that line and the collar texts the reserve manager with a location. Staff reach the animal before it reaches a farm.

ONE BULL, NAMED KIMANI

The animal that proved it

He was so destructive that managers had him in their rifle sights. Someone spotted the collar and called Save the Elephants first. Rangers turned him back each time an alert fired. By 2008 he had stopped raiding altogether.

NIGERIA

WCS at Yankari Game Reserve

Six collared elephants let ranger teams shadow the herds continuously. Managers are alerted when an animal strays outside the reserve. Yankari holds Nigeria's largest remaining elephant population.

AT SCALE

EarthRanger

An open-source system from the Allen Institute for AI that pulls in collar data and fires automated alerts. Animals entering a high-risk zone trigger a response, rather than a report written afterward.

21 nights

How long Kimani raided crops in a single spree before geofencing was set up around him.

Source: Save the Elephants geo-fencing project

Where to Buy Research Grade Wildlife Trackers

Wildlife GPS tracking devices

Photo credit: telemetrysolutions.com

Consumer trackers are the wrong tool for this. Research work needs a device matched to a species and a data path that survives no cell coverage. This is a specialist market, and Konnect GPS points readers toward Telemetry Solutions for it.

The company has supplied wildlife biologists since 1996, out of Concord, California. Their range runs from about 5 grams to 200 grams. That covers small birds and reptiles at one end, large mammals at the other.

BEYOND THE TAGS

The surrounding kit

Base stations for field download, satellite upload devices, and drop-off mechanisms. Custom builds are available where nothing off the shelf fits a study.

COMPANY REPORTED, NOT INDEPENDENTLY TESTED

On durability

One fox collar recovered after five years with 13,000 stored fixes. Wireless transfer to a base station at up to 30 kilometers. Both numbers come from Telemetry Solutions.

Telemetry Solutions

Custom wildlife GPS devices, base stations, and drop-off mechanisms, supplied to research teams worldwide since 1996.

Visit Website
“

Update interval decides everything in tracking. Battery life and mounting are just the constraints you accept to get the interval you need.

Ryan Horban, GPS Tracking Expert

What Wildlife Tracking and Vehicle Tracking Have in Common

Strip away the collar and the harness. Both fields are making the same three decisions.

Reporting interval against available power

A research collar might take one fix an hour. Sometimes one a day. Every transmission spends battery nobody can replace without finding the animal again.

Plug a tracker into a car's OBD2 port and that constraint disappears. Which is why Konnect reports every 3 seconds while a satellite collar reports a handful of times daily. Most vehicle trackers still settle for once a minute. At highway speed, that leaves most of a mile unaccounted for.

Geofencing

Save the Elephants pioneered this on crop-raiding bulls. That same feature tells a parent their car left a school zone. Draw a boundary. Get an alert when something crosses it. The stakes differ wildly. The logic does not.

Knowing when the device comes off

Researchers engineer drop-off mechanisms so a collar releases on schedule. Vehicle tracking has the opposite worry, because a device coming off usually means somebody removed it. Konnect fires a tamper alert on unplug and keeps reporting for roughly 15 minutes on internal battery.

What Konnect deliberately leaves out

Plenty of OBD2 trackers advertise harsh braking scores, idle timers, and fuel analytics. Konnect does none of that. The omission is a decision, not a gap.

Pulling those readings means polling the vehicle's ECU continuously, all day, on every vehicle. Polling that hard does leave open the potential for electrical issues. Konnect was built to sit light on the electrical system and fast on position.

Most owners want to know where a vehicle is and where it has been. Anyone who genuinely needs behavior scorecards should look at a deep-ECU telematics platform instead. Just go in knowing what that continuous polling asks of the vehicles.

Track what matters to you

Researchers wait an hour between fixes because they have no choice. You don't have that constraint. Konnect plugs into the OBD2 port and updates every 3 seconds. Geofence and speed alerts, a year of trip history, a lifetime warranty, and USA-based support.

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Frequently Asked Questions

GPS tracking enables researchers to monitor wildlife in real-time, revealing how animals interact with their environments. This technology pinpoints the exact locations of animals, allowing scientists to observe migration patterns, feeding behaviors, and social interactions without disturbing them. A notable example is the study ofAfrican elephants’ migration, which has revealed crucial corridors between protected areas. This specific insight, derived from GPS data, helps in planning effective conservation areas and mitigating human-wildlife conflicts. Such findings, as detailed in the “Journal of Animal Ecology,” validate the critical role of GPS tracking in wildlife research. By understanding the nuances of animal movements, conservationists can better protect endangered species and their habitats.

You can track a variety of animals with GPS devices, from small rodents to large mammals like African elephants. These devices are particularly useful for tracking medium-sized animals that are difficult to observe in their natural habitats. For endangered species such as cheetahs, African wild dogs, rhinos, and leopards, different types of tracking collars are essential. Wildlife ACT uses these collars for daily monitoring, enabling quick response when animals are in danger or need assistance. This technology supports important research on movement patterns, demographics, and species interactions, contributing to conservation efforts.

Wildlife ACT has developed anti-poaching collars with emergency signals for animals like cheetahs and wild dogs, providing a critical safety measure. The organization has also introduced rhino ankle collars, which allow for larger batteries and more advanced tracking technology, improving monitoring and security.

Additionally, state-of-the-art anti-poaching transmitters alert monitors to animals in distress, allowing for timely interventions. Remote camera traps further aid in collecting data on endangered species, helping in population management and the development of conservation strategies. This comprehensive approach helps ensure the survival of these species.

Source: https://www.wildlifeact.com/about-wildlife-act/monitoring-tracking-technology/

GPS technology is pivotal for wildlife conservation, offering detailed insights into animal movements and behaviors. This crucial data aids in protecting species from human-induced threats and habitat destruction. By identifying vital migration routes, researchers can secure essential habitats, thereby ensuring the survival of various species.

Further illustrating this point, the US Fish and Wildlife Service highlights a range of tracking technologies, including VHF, GPS, and the Argos satellite system. Each plays a vital role in providing a layered understanding of wildlife movements, from local to global scales. This rich tapestry of data shapes effective conservation strategies, essential for maintaining healthy animal populations.

Notably, the integration of GPS with satellite telemetry stands out as a technological leap forward. The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s documentation, available for public viewing, underscores how these tools collectively bolster conservation efforts. Hence, technology proves to be a fundamental ally in the ongoing effort to preserve wildlife, demonstrating the critical role GPS technology plays in enhancing the well-being of animal populations.

GPS tracking offers high accuracy for observing animal movements, capable of delivering real-time data. This technology enables the monitoring of animals across vast distances and challenging terrains. Researchers gain a comprehensive view of animal behavior and habitat usage, enhancing our understanding of their ecological patterns. According to National Geographic, this precision plays a crucial role in wildlife studies, allowing scientists to make informed conservation decisions.

Attaching GPS trackers to animals isn’t a one-size-fits-all process—it’s tailored to each species’ unique needs. For larger mammals, collars are the go-to choice, providing a secure fit without restricting their movements. Harnesses are often used for birds or smaller mammals, offering a comfortable fit that won’t interfere with their flight or mobility.

For some species, ear tags provide a lightweight tracking option, especially useful for animals that need to carry minimal extra weight. For more permanent tracking, implants are sometimes used, giving researchers ongoing data without any visible device on the animal.

Choosing the right attachment method depends on factors like the animal’s size, typical behavior, and habitat. This thoughtful approach ensures that the tracker stays out of the way, allowing the animal to move freely and naturally. It’s all about gathering vital data while respecting the animal’s well-being.

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