As the field of reintroduction biology continues to grow, the demands of monitoring systems have increased. Pulsed VHF radio tracking technology has been used, almost unchanged, to monitor terrestrial vertebrates since the 1960s. Common pulsed VHF can only monitor one individual on each radio frequency, and the number of individuals monitored is limited by the time spent on each frequency and the number of receivers. Coded VHF technology, which uses a digital code to monitor up to 512 individuals on a single frequency, removes these constraints and greatly reduces the time needed to confirm the status of individuals.
Here we demonstrate the utility of coded VHF technologies applied to monitoring a reintroduced population of brush-tailed bettong (Bettongia penicillata) on the Southern Yorke Peninsula in southern Australia. A system of autonomous monitoring towers was able to monitor multiple deployments of coded VFH collars and tail tag deployments over 20 months, recording up to 50 different individuals tags simultaneously without having to change frequency on any of the towers. During a single 24-hour period, one individual was recorded over 24,078 times, creating opportunities for behavioural studies. Key benefits of the high detection rate and autonomous recording are, a timely response to mortalities or a predation event, the detection of nocturnal, cryptic or burrowing species whenever they are active, and the reduced need for personnel to be in the field.