Project
Smart Owl Nestboxes
A monitoring system to track the weight and the location of barn owls.
Capturing and measuring birds in the wild is a daunting task that is time consuming, labor intensive, and a disturbance to the animals that can cause stress. In addition, it is often not even possible to observe or capture the birds throughout the annual cycle, as they are often very secretive outside of the breeding season.
With the Anisca system developed by Octanis in collaboration with the Swiss Ornithological Institute, the identity of the bird together with its body weight can be recorded stress-free and throughout the year. As soon as the animal sits on the perch, its identity is registered using RFID and its weight is continuously measured. The bird wears a small transponder ring on its leg, the RFID antenna is integrated into the wooden platform of the perch, and the perch itself is attached to a scale that can be mounted on the wall of the nest box. The systems are powered by rechargeable batteries, and can thus operate autonomously for a year. The data can be downloaded via USB cable, but is also transmitted directly to a web database via a radio network, so that one knows practically in real time which individual is sitting on the perch and what its body weight is.
Related News
- 22 Jan 2022: A Progress Update on Octanis Instruments' Barn Owl Monitoring Device
- 17 Dec 2020: Two years into the barn owl monitoring project: First Results
- 23 May 2017: CQFD RTS: Des nichoirs digitaux pour observer les chouettes
- 22 May 2017: EPFL News