Articles

Notes from the lab and the field.

Insights, technical notes, and announcements from the UID team.

- Standards
- RFID
- Research
ISO 11784 / 11785, explained for people who actually have to ship a study

What the ISO standards for animal RFID actually require, what they don't, and which parts you need to care about when you're picking a transponder vendor.

UID Engineering Team Feb 17, 2026
- White Paper
- Mice
- Identification
- Animal Welfare
- Research
White Paper: Microchip Implantation in Pre-Weaned Mice

UID white paper summarizing a study that demonstrated anesthesia-free RFID microchip implantation in pre-weaned mice — enabling permanent individual identification from the neonatal stage.

UID Scientific Team Feb 24, 2020
- RFID
- Surgical Monitoring
- Research
Top 3 Benefits of RFID Microchips for Monitoring Your Surgical Studies

Manual surgical monitoring is labor-intensive and misses nighttime data. Implantable RFID microchips offer a hands-free alternative that continuously tracks rodent temperature and activity in the home cage.

UID Engineering Team Oct 15, 2019
- RFID
- Field Research
- Urban Wildlife
- Rats
Fordham and Columbia Researchers Take Rat Research Outside the Lab with RFID

Fordham and Columbia researchers used a UID low-frequency RFID solution to track wild rats at a Brooklyn waste recycling site, showing lab-grade identification technology works in uncontrolled field environments.

UID Editorial Team Oct 14, 2019
- White Paper
- Surgical Monitoring
- Animal Welfare
- Research
- 3Rs
White Paper: Enhancing Animal Welfare and Surgical Monitoring in Rodent Models

Envigo white paper on using RFID continuous temperature monitoring to improve surgical welfare in cardiac rodent models — revealing mice lose more heat than rats and that this gap affects recovery time.

UID Editorial Team Jul 7, 2019
- Urban Wildlife
- RFID
- Field Research
- Rats
Cats Are Bad at Catching Rats — But Feast on Other Animals

A behavioral ecology study at a Brooklyn waste transfer station used RFID-chipped rats to document that feral cats are poor rat predators, with rats actively avoiding cats and only two kills recorded in 79 days.

UID Editorial Team Sep 26, 2018
- Urban Wildlife
- RFID
- Field Research
- Rats
In the Battle of Cats vs. Rats, the Rats Are Winning

The first study to document cat-rat colony interactions found cats kill rats at a very low rate, with microchipped rats actively avoiding cats — countering the assumption that cats control urban rat populations.

UID Editorial Team Sep 26, 2018
- Urban Wildlife
- RFID
- Field Research
- Rats
What Scientists Can Learn from New York City's Urban Rats

Fordham biologists are using RFID chips to track free-roaming rats at a Brooklyn waste facility, studying the 'silent language' of rat pheromone communication and how urbanization reshapes animal ecosystems.

UID Editorial Team Jul 24, 2018

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Notes from the lab and the field.

ISO 11784 / 11785, explained for people who actually have to ship a study

White Paper: Microchip Implantation in Pre-Weaned Mice

Top 3 Benefits of RFID Microchips for Monitoring Your Surgical Studies

Fordham and Columbia Researchers Take Rat Research Outside the Lab with RFID

White Paper: Enhancing Animal Welfare and Surgical Monitoring in Rodent Models

Cats Are Bad at Catching Rats — But Feast on Other Animals

In the Battle of Cats vs. Rats, the Rats Are Winning

What Scientists Can Learn from New York City's Urban Rats

Have a question or a study you want to talk through?