Plant and animal tagging methods encompass a range of techniques used to individually mark organisms for identification, tracking, and data collection in ecological and behavioral research. Approaches include physical tags (e.g., ear tags, leg bands, collars, PIT/ RFID tags, satellite or GPS transmitters), chemical or molecular markers (e.g., stable isotopes, genetic tags), and minimally invasive plant markers (e.g., coded tags on stems or branches). Method selection is constrained by species biology, tag retention, effects on fitness and behavior, environmental conditions, and data-resolution requirements, and is typically accompanied by rigorous ethical, welfare, and permitting considerations in wildlife and conservation studies.
A study by researchers at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry indicates that if lichen continues to decline across the Arctic, caribou populations could struggle to survive the winter.
Plants & Animals
23 hours ago
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Penguins living along the Patagonian coast of Argentina can serve as living monitors of their environment by using small, chemical-detecting leg bands, according to a study from the University of California, Davis, and the ...
Environment
Apr 8, 2026
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Recent data showing an increase in lead exposure and deaths among critically endangered California condors seems to fly in the face of decades of conservation measures, including bans on lead bullets and public-education ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 18, 2026
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When a wolf pack runs down its prey, the first on the scene is often the raven. Even before the predators have had time to dig in, the ravens are already in line, waiting to take advantage of the odd scrap of meat that becomes ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 12, 2026
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Every morning, people fasten their watch, slip on a bracelet and head out the door without thinking much about what they might encounter along the way. The air they breathe, the dust on their hands and the surfaces they touch ...
Environment
Mar 9, 2026
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February 2026 has seen thousands of dead seabirds washing up along the coastlines of the UK, France, Spain and Portugal. There's evidence that these "wrecks" (where large numbers of seabirds are found along beaches) are becoming ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2026
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Research from Adelaide University and the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) has shown for the first time that Australian sea lion pups can learn foraging behavior from their mothers. Social information ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 21, 2026
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145
Fairy wrens are everywhere. Go anywhere in Australia and there will be at least one local fairy wren. They're not endangered. In fact, it would be hard to imagine an animal less endangered than fairy wrens. So what do we ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 17, 2026
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The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched a novel robotic platform to rapidly analyze plant root systems as they grow, yielding AI-ready data to accelerate the development of stress-tolerant crops ...
Biotechnology
Feb 14, 2026
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How do the different parts of an adult plant communicate with each other when it suffers an injury, is waterlogged, burnt or exposed to environmental stress? Today we can answer this question thanks to an innovative optical ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 11, 2026
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