{"id":21323,"date":"2025-09-15T10:15:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/?p=21323"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:15:23","slug":"hunters-save-tracking-collars-from-big-game-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/2025\/09\/15\/hunters-save-tracking-collars-from-big-game-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunters: Save tracking collars from big game\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>NEWS RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sept. 15, 2025 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PHOENIX \u2014 The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) is encouraging  hunters who harvest a big game animal affixed with a GPS or VHF tracking collar to return that collar undamaged to any department office statewide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While harvesting a collared animal is legal, AZGFD asks hunters to refrain from cutting, damaging, or otherwise destroying any portion of a collar. A collar easily can be removed from a harvested animal\u2019s neck by loosening two nuts on the black \u201cdrop-off\u201d box on one side of the collar. A crescent wrench, socket wrench, or multi-use tool can be used to loosen only those two nuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AZGFD relies on valuable data that collars provide in making science-based decisions that determine the most effective wildlife management practices. The stored data can include an animal\u2019s behaviors, movement patterns and frequency, individual and group dynamics, home-range size, and more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The technology is expensive. A collar can range in cost up to several thousands of dollars. When factoring in additional costs of human resources, equipment and capture, AZGFD is making a substantial investment in each collared animal. A portion of the funding comes from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/hunting\/hunt-draw-and-licenses\/wildlife-and-sportfish-restoration-program\/\">Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration<\/a> (WSFR) program, a stalwart national funding source for state conservation and recreational opportunities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s also helpful for hunters to report the date and location of their harvest when returning an undamaged collar to any <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/Agency\/Offices\"><strong>department office<\/strong><\/a> statewide. For more information, call 602-942-3000.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AZGFD asks hunters to return tracking collars undamaged to any department office statewide. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":11086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-site"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hunters: Save tracking collars from big game\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 - Arizona Game &amp; Fish Department<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/2025\/09\/15\/hunters-save-tracking-collars-from-big-game-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hunters: Save tracking collars from big game\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 - Arizona Game &amp; Fish Department\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AZGFD asks hunters to return tracking collars undamaged to any department office statewide.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/2025\/09\/15\/hunters-save-tracking-collars-from-big-game-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arizona Game &amp; Fish Department\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T17:15:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T17:15:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/azgfd-portal-wordpress-pantheon.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/28100459\/collaredElk_360.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhajek\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"dhajek\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/2025\/09\/15\/hunters-save-tracking-collars-from-big-game-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.azgfd.com\/2025\/09\/15\/hunters-save-tracking-collars-from-big-game-2\/\",\"name\":\"Hunters: Save tracking collars from big game\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 - Arizona Game &amp; 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