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Sensors / Feed

Want to talk about sensors that don't quite fit into any of our tech-specific groups? This is the place to post! From temperature and humidity to airflow and pressure sensors, there are many environmental sensing tools that can add valuable data to core conservation monitoring technologies. With the increasing availability of low-cost, open-source options, we've seen growing interest in integrating these kinds of low bandwidth sensors into existing tools. What kinds of sensors are you working with?
discussion

Habitat box monitoring?

Gerrit Niezen

14 January 2026 10:39am

Does anybody know of any good open-source solutions for habit box monitoring (e.g. bird boxes, bat boxes, hedgehog boxes and kestrel boxes)? We're trying to figure out if the...

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Jacob de Feijter

30 May 2026 11:19pm

Quickest way to do that is to do a simple range test using 2 modules like thisMobile LoRa setup

It's minimal cost and no need for any wiring or soldering etc.  You can also use it to see how antenna height affects the range, and - if needed - use the temporary base station as a repeater to extend the range of boxes that are in difficult locations. But the repeater will need to be equipped with a solar cell to keep the battery charged.

I use a kit like this - but with longer antenna to get a better range

LoRa test kit

I think they are on sale at the moment https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009827293700.html

If you like, just send me the coordinates of the area where you intend to monitor the boxes. With Google Earth (or a contour map if you have) I may be able to give you an indication of what range you can expect.

 

 

 

 

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discussion

A thermal (at 1280x1024 resolution) impression of Kasteel park Born, The Netherlands

Kim Hendrikse

28 March 2026 10:50am

I'd like to share some of the first video content filmed with our new 1280x1024 thermal module. We are proud to announce that Wildlife Security Innovations has a new partnership...

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Kim Hendrikse

7 April 2026 8:55am

On this note, if the application was poacher detection, then with the general purpose lens on this module it can detect a person with AI in complete darkness at 100m. As in this photo.

Poacher

Li-Dunn Chen

15 May 2026 8:18pm

Hi Kim,

Pretty impressive camera! How much are these going for? We are hoping to find some cameras that can withstand the Canadian winter. Do you have any comparable recommendations that might be available in these parts (Toronto, Ontario)? 

We've developed real-time monitoring pipeline for basic behaviours in tigers and polar bears at the Toronto Zoo using CCTV Livestreams and are now hoping to configure a standalone camera system with a microcontroller and 4G-enabled router for real-time monitoring and alerts in a mobile deployment. 

For your particular camera, you had mentioned in another thread that an export license is required outside of the EU for various camera resolutions - why is that?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Li

Kim Hendrikse

17 May 2026 6:03pm

That 1280x1024 resolution thermal camera is extremely expensive. It's more than 10,000 euros.

As to standing low temperatures the thermal modules are rated to -40C. I guess I'll find out soon enough if they can stand the cold temperatures as two of these units will be going to Greenland soon.

Our thermal systems will not run on micro-controllers. They come with either a Raspberry Pi based host of a NVidia Jetson based host.

About export licenses. Thermal imaging technology is deemed dual-use tech. And it's governed in Europe by what's called the Wassenaar agreement or ITAR. Canada is on the list of countries for which less restrictions apply. Export doesn't need a license for up to 384x288 resolution. But 640 resolution or higher require a license. We apply for such licenses to export for our clients. There's potentially up to an 8 week wait for a license, but there's also a wait for typically 6-8 weeks to get new stock unless I happen to have some spare.

The 640x512 based system is sold with an outdoor box and 3D printed enclosures suitable for outdoor wildlife monitoring and the host computer and software and is in the vincity of 3000 euros, but the price varies with the chosen components and also what's happening in the markets. Currently Raspberry Pi hardware is crazy expensive to what it used to be priced at due to the memory shortage.

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discussion

Custom Hydrophone Records Dolphins

Brett Smith

23 April 2026 3:33pm

 A few years back, we began work in earnest on our DFAD recycling project in Seychelles.During the exploratory phase - we experimented with every high value use for the buoys...

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Walter Zimmer

3 May 2026 7:46am

Brett, you may reach out to @Lucille, who under the auspices of the Partnership  for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO), the Scientific Committee of Ocean Research (SCOR), and the International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE) is managing the development of LC-MARE a low cost marine acoustic recorder.  An ultra low power ADC is indeed an important component, so there may be some synergies.

Elionai

6 May 2026 3:35pm

This is really interesting — especially the part about experimenting with different high-value uses.

I’m currently working on a small edge AI project for ecosystem monitoring, and it’s made me realize how different things can look outside of controlled environments.

Out of curiosity, during those experiments, what ended up being the biggest constraint — was it more about technical feasibility, cost, or something unexpected in real-world conditions?

 

Chris Nicholas

11 May 2026 7:34pm

cool! 
When you say: "...first usable result that validates our hardware and software signal chain." can you share what those chains are? 

As for connectivity, yeah, that's a HUGE challenge ... Can you do SMS-level connectivity to Starlinks?

I presume you'd want to log basic temp/salinity, and perhaps include a basic accelerometer for wave motion over something like MQTT. 

As for pushing down bioacoustic processing to the devices, yeah, would be awesome to do some minimal envelope threshold detection, and just send back compressed versions of 'the good stuff' .  Maybe even listen for propellers and/or fishing sonar too, and send EarthRanger alerts.

And of course you'd want to do OTA updates, which in turn introduces security, etc.

Fun project!

 

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discussion

Tiger coexistence challenges

Mandy Eyrich

20 April 2026 3:20am

Too Many Tigers, Jungle Too Small: Human-Animal Conflict In Land Of Mowgli Check out this recent article about tiger conservation and community coexistence challenges...

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Jared Moore

2 May 2026 6:32am

Hi Mandy, writing from Indonesia where we manage the Sumatra Merang Peatland Project (SMPP) which is in a landscape supporting some of the last Sumatran tigers. Our project is part of a corridor including two national parks and a few scattered conservation areas within active oil palm and Acacia plantations. There's not a lot of room for tigers and they do range through human communities or come into contact with plantation workers. 

Fatal attacks are rare but two occurred in 2022. We hold annual HWC trainings with communities but also celebrate International Tiger Day with them, having a light-hearted event with games, face paint, and education of the importance of biodiversity, even when scary. We emphasize common sense personal safety measures to reduce the potential for conflict. Luckily livestock aren't very common in this area so that conflict trigger is not a major issue. Mostly it's about restricting activity at dusk/night/dawn, travelling in groups, not running, etc. We haven't found any feasible tech options (tagging is beyond our scope/budget) but we do use camera traps to see if/when tigers are present in/around our project area. This can only do so much for HWC as it's not a rapid response tool but does indicate presence. 

Regarding your question "Who/what parties should be held responsible for the loss of life, both human and tiger? Can they be held responsible?" there isn't an easy answer! Indonesian law technically gives tigers the same right-to-life as humans but in practice reprisals of course happen. In our region the military did respond to the 2022 events with patrols and presence, but they were not allowed to shoot. Obviously there is no proactive recourse against the tiger itself as a responsible party. It's an opportunity to redouble efforts on community education to explain why the attacks occurred (both fatalities were at forest frontiers, crouching with back to the forest, etc) and how to avoid re-occurrence! 

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discussion

Humidity & Temp data logger for nesting boxes

Andrew Fairbairn

3 April 2026 10:23am

Hey everyone,I am looking for a humidity and temperature data logger that can be deployed in nesting boxes for ca. 6 months. I was originally looking at the DS1923-F5 Hygrochron...

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Simon Croft

19 April 2026 4:49am

Hi Andrew,

If near real-time data is of interest, another option is to move away from standalone loggers and use a low-power wireless sensor approach. The BME280 Harold mentioned would be fairly straightforward to integrate where I²C/SPI interfaces are supported.

The main advantage is visibility. Instead of discovering issues perhaps months later, you would see both data and device health in real time. That can be useful if a unit fails or gets damaged, which sounds like risk in these nesting boxes. It also allows you to vary sampling rates if you want higher resolution during periods of interest.

Deployment practicality will depend on site conditions, but these types of systems are already being used in remote ecological settings, including arboreal installations where infrastructure is mounted in/around canopy environments.

Happy to share more detail if it is of interest.

Cheers,

Simon

Felipe Vallejo

24 April 2026 10:43pm

Hi Andrew,

We used some bluemaestro discs and they seemed to be very good, until they stopped working. No reason, they would stop working, they were indoors. 

So wouldn't recommend them, specially for a challenging environment (nests).

Good luck.

Jared Marley

28 April 2026 7:05pm

Hi Andrew,

We (Margo Supplies) are in beta release of our temp logger project. This is a marine sensor for us so humidity is not packaged in. There may be some potential to do that depending on timeline? Feel free to send me a DM with project details and we can discuss. 

Cheers,

Jared 

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careers

Ecological Data Scientist

Lacey Hughey

21 April 2026 9:22pm

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. This position is located in the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology...

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discussion

Non-Invasive Turtle Nest Monitoring Using RTI Technology

Nik Fadzly N Rosely

29 May 2025 1:12pm

📢 We're excited to share our new #ConservationTech initiative!Using Radio Tomographic Imaging (RTI), our team is building a non-invasive system to monitor...

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Mike Palko

18 April 2026 2:47pm

Greetings Nik, it is interesting to see to the project you are working on.  If there's anything I can do to help with my skillset let me know.

Thanks, Mike

Chris Nicholas

21 April 2026 2:49am

do I see in the diagram some elements positioned below the sand? (perhaps below the tide-line and saturated with water..?)

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discussion

I WANT TO TELL YOUR STORY

Barny Dillarstone

29 June 2025 10:22am

I create ocean exploration and marine life content on YouTube, whether it be recording nautilus on BRUVs, swimming with endangered bowmouth guitarfish, documenting reef...

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Tracy Kadessa

11 January 2026 7:33am

Amazing!

Found your instagram page and have been scrolling all morning ( most educative doomscrolling I've done so far😂). Love it, am seeing sea creatures I've never seen.

Manijhe

24 March 2026 1:37pm

Wonderful work! Would you be interested in documenting a story about afforestation from the Pacific Ocean to the Himalayas (Indus River focus)? 

I’m interested in doing an expedition documentary bridging mythology and conservation with a YouTuber to help bring awareness towards forest conservation all along the river. The focus is water and water wildlife.

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discussion

Seeking input: FAIR & AI-ready wildlife drone datasets

Jenna Kline, PhD

4 March 2026 9:21am

Have you ever tried to reuse a published drone dataset, only to realize key context was missing? Or wanted to publish your drone dataset, but not sure how to start?We are seeking...

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Elsa

12 March 2026 11:11am

Hi @jennamkline , are you in the SCB Drones and Data Working Group? I think it would be great to have that as a topic for discussion during the next meeting! I'd be keen to hear more about this work.

@annavallery this might be of interest to you.

Jenna Kline, PhD

13 March 2026 2:36pm

hi @elsa thanks so much for the suggestion! i would love the SCD Drones and Data Working Group's input on this proposal. I was planning on attending one of their meetings later in March to solicit feedback. If there are additional venues to engage with the group, please let me know!

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discussion

East Africa coordination between ICTC Peru and GCTDF Kenya – informal community update

David Guerin

27 January 2026 12:52am

I’m posting this specifically for East Africa–based WILDLABS community members.WILDLABS is leading the International Conservation Technology Conference (ICTC) in Peru, and there...

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Cephas Eddy Omondi

24 February 2026 1:03pm

How are current drone pilots in the Mara handling biometric authorization for flight logs to ensure data integrity?

Elsa

25 February 2026 11:27am

Hi @DavidGlobalDroneForum , I have attended ICTC and tried to be in the drone-related sessions as much as possible. I'm am not based in Africa but very much would like to better understand how drones are being used there as the organisation I work for are keen to increase the use of drones in that area. Would be happy to contribute in some way with reflections depending on timeline. Unfortunately I won't attend the conference in Kenya in person. I have also signed up to the Drone WG so was hoping to share something then too!

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article

Join the 2026 #Tech4Wildlife Challenge! (Feb. 2-6)

WILDLABS Team

20 January 2026 6:21pm

For the 10th year in a row, we’re inviting the community to share photos and videos of how they’re engaging with technology for wildlife conservation. Participate to connect with the community, vote for your favorites,...

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Carly Batist

20 January 2026 10:22pm

Best time of the year! 

Susan Chege Reuben

2 February 2026 9:45am

This year am In for the @tech4Wildlife challenge

Barnabas Sani

25 February 2026 9:47am

Any prize for the winners?
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event

Edge AI for Conservation Workshop

Jenna Kline, PhD

14 January 2026 9:04pm

Deploying Intelligence Where It Matters Most

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