Advice needed: Beginner's Conservation Tech Starter Kit

Hi Wildlabbers!

Ellie here, using our forums to get my own advice from all of you for a change!

As some of you know, I don't originally come from a conservation tech background, so I haven't had many chances to get practical tech experience. I'm starting a backyard project to learn the basics of setting up and using some common conservation tech tools, as well as analysing the data afterward with tools like Megadetector. The first three tools I'm considering are:

Camera trap (possibly a Bushnell model)
Bioacoustic recorder (Audiomoth is backordered until 2022, so I'm thinking about trying a Wildlife Acoustics Song Meter)
FieldKit Weather station (once they're available again)

My questions for all of you are:

How do you all store your camera trap and acoustic data? Should I include an external hard drive in my budget, and what amount of storage should it have?
Are there any other analysis tools or platforms you'd recommend for a beginner?
Do I need to include any other accessories or supplies in my budget that I haven't thought of? (ex: Usb cords, memory cards, batteries, etc.) What other surprise costs would a beginner not be aware of?

And lastly, if any of you have other types of tech to recommend that I could use in my backyard, I'm open to suggestions!

For those wondering, my study species will be the local squirrels that fight each other in my yard. (The occasional chipmunk, rat, raccoon, and possum may also make appearances.) In this highly professional study, I'll be looking at squirrel behavior and interactions, how weather impacts squirrel presence and behavior in the backyard, how bait (peanuts or bird seeds) at the camera trap site influences species presence and behavior, and how frequently they make squeaky fighting sounds at each other. As I said, it's VERY professional.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice!

Cheers,

Ellie

Rob Appleby

@Rob_Appleby | He/him

Wild Spy

Whilst I love everything about WILDLABS and the conservation tech community I am mostly here for the badges!!

25 September 2021 2:20am

Hi Eliie,

It looks like you have a lot the bases already covered for your study/squirrel fight club that you are starting. Definitely a good idea to have a portable drive for storing images and having at least two SD cards means you can simply swap and go when you want to retreive data. Are you recording video or still images (or both)? You probably know that video tends to require a lot more storage depending on length and resolution, so something to keep in mind. I'd say a 1TB hard drive would be a reasonable starting point.

When choosing your camera trap (some also record audio, although quality is unlikely to match an AudioMoth or other professional sound recorder), check what size SD card it takes, what batteries/power supply it can work with (e.g. not all are well-suited to using rechargeable AA batteries for example) and whether there are any potentially helpful features (e.g. Bluetooth/Wifi connection might be helpful).

I think you could also consider doing a food preference study, with labelled mini containers set up like a picnic table or perhaps a boxing ring in front of the camera to see what squirrels like best and if it improves fighting ability. Follow me on Twitter for more helpful hints.

All the best for your study,

Rob

Harold Tay

@htarold

Worked as a mechanical engineer for a defence co, then software engineer, then for a research lab specialising in underwater robotics.

3 October 2021 10:34pm

Hi Ellie,

I can set you up acoustic recorder-wise, DM me if you think you might be interested.

Thanks,

-harold

Lars Holst Hansen

@Lars_Holst_Hansen

Aarhus University

Biologist and Research Technician working with ecosystem monitoring and research at Zackenberg Research Station in Greenland

5 October 2021 8:48am

Sounds like a great plan! I would strongly advice you to get two hard drives to store the data on - one a main storage and the other as backup - preferebly kept in a different location.

David Savage

@dtsavage

Purdue University

8 October 2021 1:02am

Hey Ellie--

Glad to see you getting started with this.

I'll speak to the data-storage question, it might be worth it for you to do something like paying for extra google drive space rather than go through the external hard drive process. That way you're ensuring you don't have to worry about losing your drive or just leaving it at home. It's $30 US for 200GB of space for a year, which is quite reasonable, especially for a single recorder / camera trap.

I'd also make sure you have an SD card reader, and maybe a sealed card holder/wallet to keep data safe while it transitions from the field. How much to budget for batteries will depend on exactly what sensors you end up purchasing but in my experience, ordering high-end alkaline batteries is the best bet (for example, in the Duracell line, their Procell D batteries really do perform better than the normal consumer level coppertop batteries). I'd recommend playing around with the scheduler software for whatever acoustic sensor you end up obtaining to figure out whether you'll be limited by power or storage depending on how you set things up.