Wildlife tracking products - Wildlife Act Innovations

Wildlife ACT Innovations tracking products are field proven, trusted by experienced conservationists and built to withstand harsh and impactful environments. Our collars are built to your specific requirements with the most appropriate technology used. Please contact our experts for a discussion on your needs, project outline and goals achievable and we will help you with the best selection of products.

VHF

VHF transmitters have been around for decades, and for good reason. Transmitters are available in small sizes with good battery life. The technology offers the operator an immersive experience in locating animals in the wild. VHF transmitters are best used when animals are to be found and visually monitored very regularly.

The total cost per location acquisition from a VHF transmitter is very high due to the manual nature of tracking using VHF technology. Previously, Wildlife ACT Innovations has outsourced VHF transmitters but we have recently developed a digitally programmable VHF transmitter that is comparable to our overseas competitor’s.

Our VHF transmitters can be used with all other collar variations and run off their own battery.

GNSS (GPS) Satellite

GNSS Satellite collars, also known as GPS Satellite collars, offer fully remote automated data collection and delivery.

Location data is autonomously collected by the tracking device and delivered to the user via a satellite network and the Internet. The technologies involved have been around for a very long time but the physical size of the tracking devices have only been small enough to track medium sized animals since around 2011.

The greatest challenges with this technology option are the need of good sky view for data communication, the cost of satellite data services and the amount of power required to communicate to a satellite. It can be a cost effective option for the collection of location data over time as it requires no manual effort from the user.

Wildlife Act Innovations prefers using Iridium as our satellite service provider, but also offers Global star solutions.

GNSS (GPS) Cellular

GNSS Cellular collars, also known as GPS GSM or GPS Cellular collars, offer fully remote automated data collection and delivery.

Location data is autonomously collected by the tracking device and delivered to the user via cellular networks and the Internet. The technologies involved have been around for a very long time and the physical size of the tracking devices are getting ever smaller.

One of the greatest challenges with this technology option remains the poor reach of cellular networks into rural areas. It is a cost-effective option for the collection of location data over time as it requires no manual effort from the user.

GNSS (GPS) UHF (including LoRa & SigFox)

GNSS UHF collars, also known as UHF download collars, offer fully remote automated data collection. Depending on the system deployed, the delivery of the data could be automatic to a network of ‘base stations’ or data could be manually downloaded wirelessly from the collar by field personnel. Location data is autonomously collected by the tracking device and stored in memory on the tracking device or immediately sent to a base station.

GNSS UHF tracking devices have been around for a long time and are small and low power enough to be used on small animals. The greatest challenges with this technology option are the need of line-of-sight between the tracking device and base station or download receiver, the practical range and of the radio link and the download speed that is achievable via the radio link. It can be a cost-effective option for the collection of location data over time as it requires no manual effort from the user for data collection but if there is no base station infrastructure in place, the data needs to be manually downloaded in the field by the user.

Wildlife Act Innovations has proprietary point-to-point radio technology, but utilises the LoRa and SigFox network services where they are available. We also deploy our own gateways and networks and offer managed services and maintenance contracts on these LoRaWAN systems.