They say that necessity is the mother of invention or as Wikipedia states, necessity is the primary driving force for most new inventions. As it often was and still is, Wildlife Computers was ahead of the market. Melinda Holland, CEO of the company, looked back fondly. “Back in the early 1990’s, we had complex Satellite Dive Recorders (SDRs). Our SDRs were very sophisticated at the time. They had onboard processing capabilities and used wet/dry sensors for surface detection, depth sensors to identify dives, and they produced a number of transmitted data products—and they were big. But what the market needed was a smaller, simpler, and less expensive location-only tag.”

The first SPOT tag started with onboard processing and a simplified controller board designed from scratch in-house as well as an Argos transmitter bought from a company called Telonics. The early SPOT tags focused on location only. However, Roger Hill—the company’s founding engineer—added a bit more. He kept the wet/dry sensor and sophisticated transmission protocols from the SDRs, and included a temperature sensor. These early SPOT tags used the wet/dry sensor to determine when it was at the surface and reported the temperature at the time of the transmission. “That’s where we got the name SPOT—Smart Position Only and Temperature.” The first field trials of SPOT tags started in early 2000 on seals and provided excellent location data to the researchers.

Over the next few years, the tag evolved. Data products such as Time-at-Temperature histograms and Haulout timelines were created using more sophisticated onboard processing. The tags got a lot smaller thanks to newer technology and smaller transmitters.

“There were transitions and changes along the way,” continued Holland. “We were unsatisfied with the size of the Telonics transmitter so we worked with another company called Seimac to build a smaller customized transmitter for us, the ‘WildCAT.’ Eventually, we collaborated with an RF consultant to design and build our own transmitter which we named the ‘Cricket’ (it was small and chirped to the Argos satellites). The Cricket was such a solid design that we eventually provided the transmitter on an OEM basis to Sirtrack and the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU), who also produced tags for marine animal tracking. SMRU still uses our transmitters. Back in those days, we ran more like a research institute that happened to sell tags. We still strive to maintain this collaborative, research-oriented culture.”

The SPOT continues to evolve as technology improves and more research questions are asked of it. Fastloc® GPS is an option for projects that need high-resolution locations. More transmitted data products are available. “Our SPOT tags continue to fill the need for a small tag whose primary purpose is horizontal movement at the lowest possible cost, but with added features,” said Holland.

Wildlife Computers always keeps the welfare of the animal at the forefront of its design philosophy. “There is a push-pull in the decision to use tags for animal tracking. When you stress an animal by tagging, you should get as much information as possible from each and every deployment. You also want a physical design that minimizes the impact on the animal’s behavior.”

The SPOT tag has appeared in over 500 published research articles. It is available in over 50 different designs and 200 configurations. For more information on our SPOT tags, visit the SPOT page to learn if these tags are right for your project.

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