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Header image: Laura Kloepper, Ph.D.

discussion

Upcoming events

What events will you be attending in 2019 related to wildlife cybercrime?  What events might be of interest to the Community?

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discussion

Good Reads?

Hi-- What are good books about the Trade and Wildlife Crime? I'll start with LIZARD KING - by Bryan Christy - this was a really good book because it...

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Keeping this thread active. 

POACHED - Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking

by Rachel Love Nuwer

This is super interesting, and gives a really good look at poaching.  Rachel goes in depth and reports back from the field, including an inside look at the CITES meetings. This opens lots of issues that need to be addressed.

 

There are two great articles about the issue of bird poaching in the Mediterranean and its serious threat to Palaearctic bird populations by Jonathan Franzen.

A 2010 article in the New Yorker,

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/07/26/emptying-the-skies

and a 2013 National Geographic feature,

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2013/07/songbird-migration/

I wrote a 2017 blog post for National Geographic about the topic of bird poaching in Cyprus,

https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2017/11/21/can-anti-poaching-activism-save-25-million-birds-a-year/

Regards,

Jason

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discussion

can we detect gillnets in turbid water?

Hey wildlabers! I'm trying to come with a way to detect artisanal gillnets in the Mekong river – the river dolphins can’t see them and get stuck in them....

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Hi Aurelie,

I do some work in underwater robotics and it's a tough problem!  Maybe there is a way around the problem instead of through.  May I ask, is the goal specifically to map where the nets are within a certain stretch of river, or to be able to ensure there are no nets wihin the area, or...?

Thanks,

-harold

Yes, I agree it's a tough problem - i'm certainly stumped ;)

 

but thanks so much for your reply and counter question - the goal is to find these gillnets and remove them...and we don't want to be pulling up every net and buoy...

 

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discussion

How to help

Hello everybody, I am a technologist, specialising in apps/web/backend/startups, and I feel an ever-growing duty to use those skills for animal conservation; particularly...

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Hi Ross,

Let's connect - I am a social scientist that has been researching demand reduction and am working on some projects, including a website, that helps consumers avoid illegal "unsafe" souvenirs. I have a few ideas floating around in my head that would take someone more tech-savvy than me to know if feasible - maybe we can exchange thoughts via email. I'd love to hear more about your ideas to reduce demand!) Feel free to email me at [email protected]

Best, Rosemary

Hi Ross,

We are developing a web-based platform with multiple tools to analyse biodiversity quality, habitat assessement management and other apps. We need some help thinking how to monetise the apps/subscriptions as well as further developing the platform. You can email me here: [email protected] if interested. Thanks.

Kind regards,

Vance

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event

WILDLABS Virtual Meetup: Big Data in Conservation

WILDLABS Team
The third and final event in Season One of the WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Series was on Big Data in Conservation. The recording is now available to watch, along with notes that highlight the key takeaways from the talks...

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discussion

Troubleshooting: Trophy Camera Brown, Bushnell

Heej everyone, I am a Dutch student currently conducting a camera trap study in Costa Rica. I will be comparing density estimates of mammals between line transect surveys and...

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Hi Marisa,

It sounds like the Iris on the lens may be stuck open or its been drifting into an open position (hence why you could see images for a while, but now the image is completely whited out). Is there the ability to alter the lens Iris on the camera?

If you can view what the image looks like directly from the camera (is there an ability to view the fiield of view as you set thecamera up?) you should  see the same problem if the Iris is wide open.

Try and isolate the problem step by step to rule out each element of the technical system, whenever you have a technical fault.  In this instance there isnt much that you have to play with on a simple trail camera. It would seem the power supply is OK because images are being captured (even though they are whited out) and the PIR is functioning to trigger the images. Check the SD card you are using works OK in another camera to rule that out as the problem too. Are the settings on this camera the same as others that are working correctly? If not alter them too.

There is also a detachable anti reflective LED cover on this Bushnell. Check its not been slipping over time and bouncing the LED illumination directly into the camera lens. That would white images out to varying degrees too.

Best,

Dave

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discussion

Project BEESWAX7 Infographic

Hi, To give you the "heads-up" on our Project BEESWAX7, herewith attached is a copy of our project Inforgraphic which describes the concept. I hope you like it. Tally...

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Love it! Covers so many of my interests - conservation, beekeeping and fiddling with Arduinos - would love to know more about the project.

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discussion

Live discussion on intersection of conservation and games

Hi all We're conducting a live interview with Brooke Tully on the intersection of games and conservation as part of her "Innovations in Conservation" series....

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Hey Gautum,  
Looks like the interview went really well! If people weren't able to make it, Gautam's interview along iwth others in the series are all available to watch here

Steph

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discussion

Bright Frog Game Studios logging on!

Hello! My name is Gabriela Fleury, a conservation biologist and graduate of the University of Cape Town's ConBio programme. I work with Jaymie Krambeck, a software engineer...

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Loving the enthuasim Gabriela (and Jaymie), welcome to the WILDLABS community! We're delighted to have you on board.

You're already right amongst it, so I'm pretty much just going to keep our of your way so you can keep doing your thing. Just know that I'm here (via direct message through my profile or at [email protected]) if you need me. 

As with all new members, I do recommend checking out our regular digest as a great way to get oriented about the latest conversations that are happening in the community, the most recent issue is available here.

You've done a stellar job introducing yourself to the community here, if you're keen to connect with other members a good starting point is our welcome thread or our member directory

Other than that, there is nothing more to add from my end. I look forward to seeing your enthusiastic posts in our community! 

Steph

Welcome! How are you getting on with your game studio?

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discussion

GIS Day 2018

Today is GIS Day. Today we turned our department foyer into a map gallery to celebrate. The conservation work of the RSPB is reliant on the application of up to date, accurate...

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discussion

Infrared filters for drone cameras

I'm interested to know how people are going about acquiring infrared imagery from drones (e.g. to calculate NDVI). There are dedicated cameras out there, and also camera...

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Although not for NDVI but worth a mention for anyone looking at converting a camera into IR only. 

I have had sucess using a DIY filter made out of blank processed camera film from a disposable camera. So long as you can still find somewhere to process the film (or do it yourself) you just cut the processed film (negatives) and replace the digital cameras IR filter (placed over the cameras sensor). This will simply turn the camera into an IR camera only so won't fit your requirement for NDVI but thought that it is worth posting if others are looking at converting a camera or Go-Pro into an IR camera. 

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discussion

WildFind - a package to produce a georeferenced heatmap of VHF collared animals.

Wildfind This work was initiated after experiencing ‘greater than normal’ frustrations in identifying the location of the VHF-collared animals at a particularly...

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Hello Mike

If I understood your system description correctly, you intend to analyse the radio data and produce the heatmap on board the drone. Why ?

I would do minimal data processing onboard, log any relevant details onto  removable memory such as an SD card and do all further processing offline on a PC.

This should dramatically reduce the energy and processing demands of your drone-based hardware and simplify the software, too.

I guess there must be (open source?) solutions available that can convert data in a suitable format into a heatmap. This should save you having to re-invent that wheel.

Hope this is of some use.

Good luck,

Joachim Neff

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank-you Joachim,

Yes- that will probably resolve one of the issues. 

I think the larger issue that Al was trying to deal with was related to the 'ghost' data that caused the noise in the data.

Perhaps the issues are related?? Maybe a logger rather than processor might reduce the errant frequencies that we were observing.

MJ

 

Hello Mike

I am not sure whether a datalogger would resolve radio noise problems. I would expect more success from improving the antenna/receiver circuitry to get rid of the noise before you digitise/record. Unfortunately, I can't give you much advice on this subject but antenna/circuit design can be tricky.

I just watched your YouTube clips and noticed in the last clip that there seems to be a 40 dB margin between the transmitter signal and the background noise. Based on my limited experience, this should be plenty to clearly separate signal from noise. With the right type of signal conditioning/filters you should be able to log only the signal you are interested in. Record this together with the current location coordinates and you should get close to the data set you need for producing the heatmap.

Good luck,

Joachim Neff

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discussion

Google AI Impact Challenge

Hi all, I just came accross this interesting website and call for proposals for the use of Artificial Intelligence to help address societal challenges. I'm sure there are some...

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discussion

Working together for wildlife

Dear WILDLABS Human Wildlife Conflict Community, Thank you again for your interest in being part of a community discussing and developing tech innovations to address HWC, which...

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Hi Nilanga, Thanks for introducing me here and I'm looking forward to some interesting discussions with everyone here! Femke
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