Before you choose your tag, you must know your species and the goals of your study.

First and foremost, you need ensure that the mass of the tracking device will not impair your study, generally by choosing tags weighing below 3% of your species body mass*.

Once you know the maximum weight of your devices, you must choose which technology will help answer your questions:

• Satellite, such as ARGOS, GPS
• Radio, such as UHF, VHF
• Network, such as GSM, RFID

For migrant species, we recommend satellite technology because it is a worldwide expanded technology. For resident species, we recommend more Radio or Network systems.

But this is not an exact science! It will depend on species behaviour and environment.

The next step is to know which kind of data you need and how you will use them.

Xerius provides a tailor-made transmitters. With BioLoc you can remotely program your device and download data directly.

All of our equipment is fully programmable, but, it is still important to know what you want when you order transmitters.

*Vendenabeele S.P.,  Shepard E.L., Grogan A., Wilson R.P., 2012. When three per cent ay not be three per cent; device-equipped seabirds experiencevariable flight constraints, Mar Biol 159:1-14