*tag* You're It!

Tag and release. A decent way of keeping track of the migration patterns of a variety of things, one has to make sure of a couple of things--the tag itself doesn't cause undue changes in the environmental response to the test subject(s), and it's properly released back into its own native environment. I've only assisted in using the tag and release tracking method once, but that once was a lot of fun..and very informative.

After the subjects have been released into their native habitat, you have to come back later and recapture. This can be the most difficult part of the job sometimes. It depends on the test subjects. Something like ants or antelopes might not be as much of a problem, but other things are more difficult.

Of course, the tagging itself can be fairly difficult, even once you have the subject in custody. If you're wanting to track migration patterns of atoms, say, how are you going to attach a tag? The larger the thing, the easier to tag. I mean, if you're wanting to track the migration patterns of stars, just throw a specially designated planet into orbit, and your tag's all set. And as a bonus, you've got somewhere to live while you wait for the star to move.

Then again, the stars have the slight problem that it's hard to "release" them. Hard, because I don't know of any good way to capture one in the first place.

But in my one experience, the re-capturing was the most difficult. We didn't have problems capturing in the first place, the subjects were already contained before we decided to do the experiment. And the tags were cheap and stayed around for years without being noticed. (I found a tag some four or so years later, on an experiment that was meant to run its course in a couple of weeks!) But no, the re-capturing was hard. For we were tracking blue chairs, and once someone else is sitting in it, it's hard to flip it over and see if it's got a tag on the bottom of the seat.

I suppose you could just check for a tag while the chair's still in use, but then people think you're odd.