Testing the applicability of tagging the Great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) using passive integrated transponders

Abstract

Tracking individual animals with small-sized passive integrated transponder tags (PIT tags) has become a popular and widespread method, one which can be used for investigating life history traits, including dispersal patterns of small protected animals such as newts. In this study, we tested the applicability of PIT tag usage for individual marking with the Great crested newt ( Triturus cristatus ) as a model amphibian species, and to test the detection of the newts in nature using a passive telemetry system. Clove oil was used as an anaesthetic before surgery. We implanted PIT tags under the skin of 140 newts. The survival rate of newts was 98.57%. X-ray images were taken to check the exact positions of the PIT tags. Since approximately 15.71% of the newts were capable of expelling the tag from their bodies, tag loss has to be accounted for in future behavioural studies dealing with newts and other amphibians potentially capable of frequent tag expulsion. Lastly, we detected by passive telemetry 97 individuals out of 100 released into a natural breeding pond. Males had higher activity (13 detected males vs 7 females per hour) than females, thus males could be detected if present with more certainty. The result of the movement behaviour showed that e.g. the male of T . cristatus in a breeding pond can travel up to 20 m in 78 seconds. In summary, this promising method could allow the automatic data collection of marked newts in aquatic as well as in terrestrial biotopes, providing data on their dispersal, diurnal activity and movement behaviour.

Improving trajectories of amphibians in wildlife passages

“…The lack of behavioral data on small species crossing wildlife passages is partly due to methodological issues (Weber et al, 2019); evaluating the behavior of amphibians in tunnels is challenging (review in Testud et al, 2019). Marking amphibians with fluorescent pigments to record continuous tracks in tunnels has been used, but the number of monitored individuals is limited and does not provide information on data such as movement speed (Matos et al, 2018).…”

“…While their detection rate has been reported as low for amphibians (Pagnucco et al, 2012), the increase in the quality of video traps implemented makes them more relevant for such small species (Hobbs and Brehme, 2017;Pomezanski and Bennett, 2018;Jarvis et al, 2019;Brehme et al, 2021). Using PIT tags is a traditional marking technique in amphibians (e.g., Perret and Joly, 2002;Winandy and Denoël, 2011;Testud et al, 2019;Weber et al, 2019). Telemetry using RFID antennas is employed to monitor movement patterns and habitat use in small animals (Charney et al, 2009), to evaluate fish passes (Thiem et al, 2011(Thiem et al, , 2013Ovidio et al, 2017;Benitez et al, 2018;Lothian et al, 2019) and tunnels (Boarman et al, 1998).…”

Negative feedback concept in tagging: Ghost tags imperil the long-term monitoring of fishes

“…PIT tag technology use is not restricted to aquatic environments and fish ecology: they are increasingly popular in the study of invertebrates and of other vertebrates [15,19,[51][52][53][54]. PIT tags have even been applied to monitoring the dynamics of abiotic environments, for example, marking stones and pebbles and tracking their movement in rivers [55].…”

“…The obvious advantage is that an animal does not have to be captured or observed directly by a scientist/wildlife manager, since the passive integrated transponder (PIT tag) located in the animal's body can be automatically scanned by an antenna loop installed on the migration route [16][17][18]. PIT tags do not require a battery, which greatly reduce their size and enables to tag relatively small animals [19,20]. This system has enabled automatic collection of migratory data, limited mainly by the width of the migratory pathway and our ability to define places on the migration route that can be covered by the antenna scanning range [21,22].…”

Combining spawn egg counts, individual photo‐ID and genetic fingerprinting to estimate the population size and sex ratio of an endangered amphibian

“…2011) or the use of tags such as Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags (Weber et al . 2019). Due to animal welfare implications and potential impacts on behavior including movements, modern studies tend to favor passive techniques.…”