Hi Don,

I agree, it's very intriguing.

I think they're using the Remora.  It looks like a solar powered GPS tracker.  I couldn't find much more information.

Thanks,

-harold

Hi Ted,

I don't have experience with that chip either but this sounds like an interesting idea.  But zooming out a bit, may I ask what PIT reader are you using?

Thanks,

-harold

Hi Ted,

This is all very interesting.  The solution you describe seems eminently doable and in fact quite cheap.  So doable and cheap that it may behoove one to also ask what the higher level vision is, in order to further constrain the solution.

For instance is there a wider need for this kind of monitoring (e.g. other birds or animals, other localities); or perhaps a need to generate greater outreach or involve new volunteers.

Thanks,

-harold

I'll be there - there are several technology sessions that are planned for it...

Muki

Thanks! We also just posted info on the AVISONA 2019 event to the resources page for anyone who missed it and wants to learn more.

Hi Femke,

At the Biological records Centre we have been tackling these issues for over 50 years! You are right to point out that with citizen scientists you can collect/review a lot of data in a relativly short period of time. Our iRecord system collect 1 million observations in 2018, and just look at how many people are reviewing images over in the zooniverse (check out snapshot serengeti).

You are also right to point our that without strict protocols, and with varying abilities, the use of citizen scientists can introduce biases, which often leads to the impression citizen science data is of lower quality. There are ways to account for this statistically when you are working on data collected in the field, and for those reviewing images online both the zooniverse and iSpot have systems in place, such as reputation and multiple reviews of a single image to reach consensus.

There is a good report on using citizen science here.

Best,

Tom

I agree with Tom's comments. A project I work with has used Zooniverse to identify animals in camera trap images, We include a field guide that helps reviewers with making trickier distinctions such as deer versus elk (challenging in partial views with IR images). We require each image to be identified by thirty reviewers before scoring it. That allows us to either be quite confident in an identification or to recognize it requires expert review. We have seen no examples of intentional misidentifications. The biggest problem is coming up with enough images to meet demand--some people will work for hours!

Hi Dirk, 

Your case study is an interesting read, thanks for sharing. In terms of people exploring similar things, there are a few members who you could connect with about different elements of the project. Your project has a few different elements - are there specific things you're interested in hearing how others are handling?

As a start: 

• @Sol+Milne is working with Drones and Orangutans, but using them to map nests rather than track individual animals. Case study here, discussion about the project here. 
• There's a discussion in this group about aerial platforms for wildlife tracking that might be relevant, which @Albin , @YvanSG , @Rob+Appleby and @emjay are involved in. In a spinoff thread, @emjay has shared the details of WildFInd, a package that produces geo-referenced heatmaps for VHF collared animals - sounds like this could be relevant for your project as you're using VHF implants as well, right? He's invited feedback to help move that project forward, so might be worth checking it out to see if it's relevant and there is overlap between your work. 
• @Tomswinfield has been working with drones in Indonesia for the past few years to map forest recovery efforts (case study here - it's a bit dated but gives you an idea what he's exploring). 
• @meganossmann has been testing out FLIR’s new Duo Pro R thermal camera as a detection tool for loggerhead sea turtle nests (case study here, discussion here). 

This is by no means an exhaustive list of members working in this space, but it's a enough to point you in the direction of some of the recent work being shared here that seems to overlap with what you're working on. 

If you haven't already, I'd also recommend having a poke around our drones group as well as there might be some relevant discussions/projects that could be of interest. 

Steph 

Hi Dirk,

Sounds like an absolutely fascinating project and well done on all the progress you've made! If you aren't already aware of it, I think the Sensorgnome system people and you have some definite things to chat about. Sensorgnomes use Pis/Beaglebones and RTL-SDRs (or FUNcubes) and custom written software to automatically tracking beacons. The system is primarily used for ground stations, and there's a lot of emphasis on the small Lotek coded VHF tags, but conventional tags also work and there's a lot of interest in the community about drone tracking as you'd expect. Anyway, great stuff and welcome to WILDLABS!

Cheers,

Rob

Just to throw a couple options out there:

Indonesia's one map portal

The hanson map, which you can download from:

Global forest watch

Google Earth Engine

Global Land Analysis and Discovery

You could also make your own map from the raw satellite data but that is a bit more involved.

Tom

Dear Sdorji,

Thanks for sharing! Are you specifically looking for monitoring methods? In that case, you could probably also find relevant information outside of the HWC group, perhaps in groups focussing on camera trapping, the use of drones etc on the other WILDLABS pages. Do you know about the Bhutanese national HWC strategy? Does this also focus on wild boars? Or is your initiative not connected to that?

Best regards,

Femke

Dear Sdorji,

Thanks for sharing and your request for suppport from this group! I was thinking that perhaps @Mohan+Raj could share with you some insights from India? He has also developed fences and is involved in the technologies to improve monitoring and maintanance.

Best regards,
Femke