Just learned about this community and am super excited to see it exists. I wanted to comment on Conservation Canines (CK9). I served as the coordinator for CK9 for 18 years. The majority of CK9, including myself and its 17 dogs, have broken off and are trying to get a new program set up called Rogue Detection Teams! We are just getting our paws under us but we are all super excited to be unleashed from the University and embarking on a grand new adventure. Rogue Detection Teams can be reached at [email protected] and also found on Facebook @roguedogs and IG and Twitter at @roguedetection. We have a website in the works at Roguedogs.org but it is not up just yet. Looking forward to being a part of the community. Dogspeed!

Hi Yvan, My name is Jennifer Hartman and I work with Rogue Detection Teams, a program that works with and instructs conservation detection dog teams. Did you ever receive enough information to pursue your project? If not, one, we'd love to learn of more opportunities ourselves, as we have many conservation projects that we would like to support and are unable to. Additionally, we have recently learned about a group, Midwest Conservation Dogs who just received a grant to train a new dog. I think it was a local grant but we're sure that they would be more than hh=appy to discuss with you how they received their grant. Most of our projects that we conduct, and we have worked on storm petrel burrows in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, come from government funding or special program fudning (some past partners include The Nature Conservancy, World WIldlife Fund, various univeristies, etc.). We're happy to discuss how we might help to get your project off the ground, or if you have already conducted it, we'd love to learn how it went and how you were able to fund it. We can be reached at [email protected] or our website is at roguedogs.org. Warm regards in the New Year, Jennifer 

Hi thermal people,

Just a quick heads up, but I am exploring some of Seek Thermal's (ex FLIR engineers I believe) new Mosaic Core modules by having a play with their developer's kit. I'll report back once I receive the equipment, but their intention is to release 320 x 240 cameras at very low cost. Note - they won't sell them individually, so a reseller will be necessary, but if they are cost effective at this resolution it could prove excellent for wildlife conservation use.

https://www.thermal.com/uploads/1/0/1/3/101388544/mosaic_core_specification_sheet.pdf

Cheers,

Alasdair

Cheers Al, and looking forward to hearing more about them. I am, as we speak, editing some thermal videos of wallaby behaviour near roads, specifically in relation to devices that activate  lights and sounds when a car is approaching (activated by vehicle headlights at night). Used a Flir 640R, but I reckon half that resolution would still be fine. Unfortunately, not much support for the devices themselves working as a deterrent/warning (although I have some ideas on how they could with additional stimuli), but the thermal camera works great for non-invasive observations!

Hi Gregory,

That is quite shocking to hear that a road could be so detrimental to wildlife. If you were able to place a speed hump or rumble strip where you place the camera you could even embed the metal detecting sensor in them to ensure accurate detection of every vehicle when they are going slower.

Our camera takes a burst of images and this can be set to be quite a quick burst or a slower burst so with a little bit of testing I am sure we could get the numberplates.

I am assuming that a lot of time these collisions happen at night. Would there be a way to have a fixed light at the camera locations as otherwise the cameras can be blinded by headlights and taillights making reading the VRN difficult.

At the moment our system is satellite connected. This does have a relatively high monthly data cost. We are also planning to develop a cellular version but this will require more funding and development time that we have not got yet.

The system is in the final stages of development and we plan to launch it in mid-2020 once it has undergone some prolonged field trials at ZSL sites, so it is not currently available. Final costings are still under review and will be released early next year.

I am sorry that we are not able to provide this capability to you right now. 

Have you found any commercially available camera systems? In the UK I believe the automatic number plate recognition cameras placed on gantrys over motorways are called SPECS and a quick google said they are sold by a company called Jenoptik. If you find out how much they are and how they work, perhaps you could update this thread?

Thanks,

Sam 

Hi @kierancamb 

A colleague of mine let me know about this thread as it's very similar to lots of things we've built (Angel Shark sightings map, Thames Marine Mammal sightings map for example). Thinking about it more this could be a simple online free and open source tool.

It could use a JSON schema compiled form made through an interface much like: https://jsonform.github.io/jsonform/playground/index.html?example=schema-morecomplex

And take a parameter for an email address to send the results to.

You could then save the form schema and the email address in a bookmarkable URL and it could just let people fill the form out and send the results on. Annoyingly URLS have a 2000 character limit but we could take a parameter of a configuration file stored elsewhere (Office Online, Google Docs, PasteBin, GitHub) that way the form would be editable by who created it too.

If anyone has any ideas on this or could also use something like it I'd happily start an open source GitHub project and build the basics.

Have been thinking about doing this for a while.

Hi Kieran and all,

I jump into the topic as I am doing research on data collection through mobile application in conservation. (I currently have a test in Cambodia in the education sector with a mobile app and the possibility for the ngo to push questions through notifications on the user's smartphone).

Kieran could you tell me what are the main problem of downloading an app for your users ? it seems it is a general concern, any idea why ?

i really believe in a system where people providing data should be incentivised for it so the data becomes of higher value and of higher quality.

Fabien

I'm part of a citizen science  biodiversity project and we ask our citizen scientists to use Kobo Toolbox's webforms to collect field data using a smart phone.  Kobo was started by Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and gets funding from various organizations including branches of the United Nations.  https://www.kobotoolbox.org

KoBoToolbox is a suite of tools for field data collection for use in challenging environments. Our software is free and open source. Most of our users are people working in humanitarian crises, as well as aid professionals and researchers working in developing countries.

Project leaders design a webform and send people a link to the form. People load the  form in a browser when they have internet connection, then go into the field and fill out the form. The forms work both online and offline. If the users fill out the form when there is no internet  connection, the next time the users open the form when there is internet connection, the data is synced to the Kobo servers. 

Kobo has an admin interface where project leaders can view, edit, and download the data. Project leaders can use condtional logic when designing the questions on the  webform (if user answers yes, show question A; if users answers no, show question B).