Some chelonians, such as the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), spend much of their time underground in burrows. Often, they will retreat into these burrows when approached. This predator avoidance behavior may potentially influence the spatial use patterns that researchers directly observe via manual telemetry. In an effort to record the movements of gopher tortoises using affordable methods that reduce behavioral effects, we devised a novel application for Global Positioning System (GPS) loggers, specifically that of a low‐cost recreational unit that could be modified for extended deployment (~6 months) under gopher tortoise‐conditions. We conducted a stationary testing study of these GPS loggers whereby they were deployed at specific depths (0.5 m, 1.0 m, and 2.0 m) inside inactive burrows and on the surface at our study site in southeastern Georgia, USA, during summer 2017. This stationary trial allowed us to characterize the effect of burrow depth on GPS fix success rate (FSR), mean location error (µLE), and root mean square of the location error (LE_RMS). We found that µLE and LE_RMS increased with increasing depth underground; µLE ranged from 17.34 m on the surface to 69.98 m at the 2.0‐m depth. However, following exclusion of LE outliers >3 standard deviations from each treatment mean, LE_RMS decreased to 8.6 m at the surface to 40.46 m at the 2.0‐m depth. The FSR varied by burrow depth from 0.51 (2.0‐m depth) to 0.99 (surface). Additionally, we provide our attachment and deployment methods as used for studying the spatial ecology of the gopher tortoise with modified recreational GPS loggers. Overall, the modified GPS loggers performed well, obtaining 146,118 successful GPS fixes on 38 individual gopher tortoises during 84 unique deployments, each approximately 3.5–6 months in duration. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

中文翻译：

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乌龟低成本休闲GPS记录仪的修改和验证

一些凯洛尼亚人，例如地鼠龟（Gopherus polyphemus），将大部分时间都花在地下洞穴中。通常，接近它们时它们会撤退到这些洞穴中。这种避免捕食行为可能会影响研究人员通过手动遥测直接观察到的空间使用模式。为了使用负担得起的方法来减少地鼠行为来记录地鼠的活动，我们设计了一种新颖的全球定位系统（GPS）记录器应用程序，特别是低成本的娱乐设备，可以对其进行修改以扩展部署范围（〜 6个月）在地鼠龟的条件下。我们对这些GPS记录仪进行了固定测试研究，在2017年夏季期间，将它们部署在美国非乔治亚州东南部非活动洞穴内特定深度（0.5 m，1.0 m和2.0 m）以及地面上。_RMS）。我们发现，µLE和LE _RMS随地下深度的增加而增加。µLE的范围从表面上的17.34 m到深度为2.0-m的69.98 m。但是，从每个处理平均值中排除LE异常值> 3个标准偏差后，LE _RMS在地表降至8.6 m，在深度为2.0 m时降至40.46 m。FSR随钻洞深度从0.51（2.0-m深度）到0.99（表面）变化。另外，我们提供了用于改进型休闲GPS记录器的地鼠陆龟空间生态学研究的附件和部署方法。总体而言，经过改进的GPS记录器表现良好，在84次独特部署中，分别对38个地鼠龟进行了146,118次成功的GPS修复，每次部署持续时间约3.5-6个月。©2020野生动物协会。