1. Monitoring the movements and behaviour of wildlife using radio telemetry or GPS devices has been critical to the fields of ecology and conservation over several decades. For many field projects however, commercially available devices can be expensive and may not always be ideally suited for collecting desired data.
2. We present a low‐cost solution of customizable tracking devices based on the open‐source Arduino system. These devices can be custom designed for specific studies and easily programmed to collect desired data.
3. Custom‐built collars with GPS and accelerometer units were trialled on 30 free‐ranging domestic dogs in rural Ethiopia. These collars collected high‐resolution data at a frequency of 10 fixes per hour and accelerometer data at 10 Hz over a 10‐day period, at a cost of approximately £100 ($130 USD) per collar.
4. These devices can be placed on any species that can handle a weight of 15.4 g plus battery and housing. The current configuration weighs approximately 240 g which would be suitable for any animal above 8 kg living in terrestrial environments.

中文翻译：

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开源，低成本模块化GPS项圈，用于监视和跟踪野生动植物

1. 在过去的几十年中，使用无线电遥测或GPS设备监控野生动植物的活动和行为对于生态和保护领域至关重要。然而，对于许多现场项目，可商购的设备可能很昂贵，并且可能并不总是非常适合于收集所需数据。
2. 我们提供了基于开源Arduino系统的可定制跟踪设备的低成本解决方案。这些设备可以针对特定研究进行定制设计，并可以轻松编程以收集所需数据。
3. 在埃塞俄比亚农村地区，对30只自由放养的家犬进行了带GPS和加速度计装置的定制项圈的试用。这些项圈在10天的时间内以每小时10次的频率收集高分辨率数据，并以10 Hz的频率收集加速度计数据，每个项圈的成本约为100英镑（130美元）。
4. 这些设备可以放置在任何可以处理15.4克重量的物种上，包括电池和外壳。当前的配置重约240克，适用于生活在陆地环境中的8公斤以上的任何动物。