Due to weight limitation I cannot use electro-mechanical drop-offs on my collars (wild dogs) and was considering using a piece of decomposable material instead. Several companies offer this option (I am working with Vectronics).
Time to decomposition depends most likely on temperature, humidity, and animal habits. If somebody has used decomposable drop-offs and has info on time to decomposition I would appreciate also knowing on which species the collar was used and in which region and also the collar brand (company name).
Any inputs are highly appreciated
For those interested, this is the state of a decomposable drop-off (by Vectronics, Berlin) after 6 months of deployment on an African wild dog in Botswana's Okavango Delta between December and June. The fabric shows some first signs of wear but I anticipate this could have lasted at least another year. For comparison a new drop-off.
Balakrishnan, there are companies offering decomposable drop-off. I have used decomposable-drop off from Vectronics on few bears in north east Turkey (cold snowy winter, dryer and temperate summer). So far a collar dropped after 18 months and one after 24 months. I was wondering whether somebody has similar infos from different species and environments.
I have experience with two different applications in modifying collars for achieving two different objectives. The first was the use of rubber bands to allow expansion of radio collars placed on white-tailed deer fawns in southwestern Oregon as they grew in body size with age. UV exposure was the determining factor in the decomposition of the rubber bands, which averaged about 6 weeks before decomposing. The rubber band or similar material could be used in an application that allows the collar to drop off rather than expand. The second is the use of an expandable PVC collar, which is described in a paper published in The Wildlife Society Bulletin in the mid 1980s describing an application with young Pronghorn Antelope. The senior author of this publication was George Keister.
from over 20 collars on tigers, bears and leopards, snow leopards just one drop-off worked
Not sure if you are still interested in your question, but anyway: In eurasian lynx we use a 1.5 mm annealed steel wire, that we sew in the collar. It rusts within about 3 years.
For those interested, this is the state of a decomposable drop-off (by Vectronics, Berlin) after 6 months of deployment on an African wild dog in Botswana's Okavango Delta between December and June. The fabric shows some first signs of wear but I anticipate this could have lasted at least another year. For comparison a new drop-off.
Dear Gabriele,
thanks for that interesting update. Especially rotting mechanisms are challenging in arid/semi-arid environment and very hard to predict. I would believe that mechanic drop-off devices might work better within such environment on a short (half-year) term.
Totally agree, unfortunately I am limited by weight and any mechanic drop off would add at least 50 g. The collar in question was supposed to be on the animal for at least other 6 month but the dog got shot. I will keep updating this post as I gather more info.
I don't know if that can help, but there is a somewhat related discussion here:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_optimal_way_of_putting_a_collar_around_an_animals_neck
with a link to a dropbox folder compiling many papers, some about collar design.
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