Reliable and unbiased information is needed for informing management decisions relevant to all animal life stages. Radiomarking is commonly used for adult birds, but this approach is more challenging for galliform chicks. Following preliminary experimentation of multiple attachment methods, we selected 2 radiotransmitter attachment techniques, gluing and suturing, to test on 11‐day‐old northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter, bobwhite) chicks in an outdoor aviary environment during 1 May 2013 through 30 Sep 2016. In addition, we field‐tested a novel, modified‐suture technique on 11‐ and 12‐day‐old wild bobwhite chicks. We found that suturing was a superior method of transmitter attachment. Glue‐on attachment of transmitters performed poorly with average retention rates <7 days. The probability of retaining a radiotransmitter for the duration of our 8‐week study was 0.76 (±0.08 SE), 0.89 (±0.09 SE), and 0.00 for normal suture, our modified suture, and glue‐on techniques, respectively. Development and growth of suture‐ and patagial‐tagged bobwhite chicks (average mass gain of 41.95 g ± 2.79 SE) was unimpeded compared with a control (patagial‐tagged only, no transmitter) group of birds (average mass gain: 40.89 g ± 2.91 SE). We observed similar tag‐retention rates (0.906 ± 0.07 SE) of transmitters affixed to wild bobwhite chicks in the field using a modified‐suture technique compared with the aviary study. Our modifications to the traditional suture methods include changing the placement of the transmitter to reduce snag rate in vegetation, using a smaller gauge syringe needle to reduce skin‐tearing, applying a surgeon's knot for increased knot‐security and reduced knot slippage while suturing, and applying insta‐set spray to rapidly dry superglue to reduce handling time of chicks. The modified‐suture technique provides improvements in tag‐retention, facilitates shorter handling time of birds in the field, and provides an effective means for tagging and tracking individuals to collect ecological data and demographic vital rates on bobwhite chicks and other birds. Future studies should investigate potential sublethal effects that suture tags may impose on individuals to identify and account for estimable biases of vital rates. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

中文翻译：

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一种改良的缝合技术，用于将无线电发射器连接到北部的Bobwhite小鸡上

需要可靠且公正的信息来告知与所有动物生命阶段有关的管理决策。放射标记通常用于成年鸟类，但是这种方法对鸡形雏鸡更具挑战性。在对多种附着方法进行初步试验之后，我们选择了两种放射性发射器附着技术（胶合和缝合），以对11天大的北方鲍勃怀特（Colinus virginianus; 以下是2013年5月1日至2016年9月30日之间在室外鸟类环境中的bobwhite雏鸡。此外，我们对11和12日龄的野生bobwhite雏鸡进行了现场测试，采用了新颖的改良缝合技术。我们发现缝合是变送器连接的一种更好的方法。变送器的胶粘连接效果不佳，平均保留率<7天。在我们为期8周的研究过程中，正常缝合线，改良缝合线和胶粘技术分别保留无线电发射器的概率分别为0.76（±0.08 SE），0.89（±0.09 SE）和0.00。与对照组（仅具有标签标签，无发射子）的鸟类（平均质量获得：40.89 g±2.91）相比，缝合线和带有标签的bobwhite雏鸡（平均质量增加为41.95 g±2.79 SE）的发育和生长不受阻碍SE）。与鸟类研究相比，我们使用改良的缝合技术在野外观察到了固定在野生鲍勃白鸡身上的发射器的相似标签保留率（0.906±0.07 SE）。我们对传统缝合方法的改进包括：更改发射器的位置以减少植物中的钩丝率；使用较小规格的注射器针头以减少皮肤撕裂；在缝合时应用外科医生的打结以增加打结的安全性并减少打结的打滑；以及使用定型喷雾剂快速干燥强力胶，以减少雏鸡的处理时间。改良的缝合技术可改善标签的保持力，缩短野外禽的处理时间，并为标记和跟踪个人以收集关于白腹雏鸡和其他鸟类的生态数据和人口动态率的有效手段。未来的研究应该调查缝合标记可能会强加给个体的潜在亚致死作用，以识别并解释生命率的可估计偏差。©2020野生动物协会。