Recycling Island Fox Radio Collars

What can you do with a radio-tracking collar that looks like this?

Recycle it!

Across the Channel Islands, a select number of island foxes wear radio-tracking collars. See more about sentinel foxes. But radio collars have a limited lifespan. Their batteries last up to 36 months, then they need to be replaced. Refitting batteries, however, isn't like put new batteries in a flashlight. The waterproof and fox-proof casing has to be removed and refurbished in a workshop.

Friends of the Island Fox is happy to announce that our February fundraiser more than met our goal to fund the recycling of radio collars for Channel Islands National Park. 

Thanks to your donations 

FIF is refurbishing all 20 of the radio collars 

that CINP planned to recycle in 2018

"The collars will get new antennas, new casings, new batteries, new bands, and/or any other new parts that may be necessary," says Laura Shaskey, Wildlife Biologist at Channel Islands National Park. "They will be completely rebuilt, however intact components will be re-used. As you can see the previously used collars are in very poor shape, chewed up, and are often missing antenna."

courtesy of K. Schafer

Another important benefit of recycling radio collars is the reusing of established bandwidths of radio frequency. In our high-tech wireless world, more and more radio frequencies are being gobbled up for human devices. Fewer radio frequencies are available for wildlife tracking equipment. Recycling collars and reusing pre-established radio-collar frequencies is a smart use of physical and audio resources.

As Shaskey points out, "Refurbishing collars is an efficient cost-effective method to replace collars, so they are as good as new for monitoring another fox for the next three years."


Because recycling a radio collar costs less, FIF was also able to purchase 5 new radio collars for use in Channel Islands National Park.

25 radio tracking collars that will be placed on island foxes 

this season because of your donations!

"Thanks again for all your support with collar purchases this year! It is a great help!" - Laura Shaskey