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Biologging / Feed

Real-time tracking of animal movements is enabling more effective and efficient wildlife monitoring for management, security, and research. As devices get smaller and prices drop, the possibilities for using biologging on a larger scale have grown, and so have the possibilities for increasing customisation to meet specific research needs. Likewise, real-time tracking of illegal wildlife trade, timber, and fish products as they move from source to consumer can shed light on trafficking routes and actors, as well as support enforcement, making tracking gear a powerful tool beyond the field.

discussion

Virtual Meetup Discussion: Future Questions & Tools in Movement Ecology

Talia Speaker

7 June 2022 9:38pm

Hi everyone, Tomorrow, June 8, is our fourth and final WILDLABS Virtual Meetup in this Tracking Progress series - we are thrilled to have such an awesome...

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Akiba

11 June 2022 4:42pm

We've actually been looking into NFC to automatically provision field devices to set/read/store metadata. We're staring down the barrel of a large deployment and metadata is one of the issues that we think really needs automation. We're thinking of having a dedicated device to write and read the tags that would go on the devices as stickers and automagically sync the metadata with the database. An added bonus would be that most recently modern phones support NFC protocols like NTAG or MiFare Classic. That would mean that they could also be both read and written with the GPS coordinates, timestamp, etc as they're deployed in the field. It's still under discussion with the many other things that need to be implemented, though. I do think it's interesting that what we're seeing in a lot of conservation technology applications is not just a need for new technology but also the less exciting but more practical need for things that improve productivity like automating metadata management. 

David Savage

12 June 2022 1:08am

Using NFC makes a lot of sense too. I'm just on an older lower-end device that doesn't support it, which is why it didn't pop immediately to mind. Would be interesting to see what the adoption rate for NFC-capable phones is across countries though I'd imagine some phone manufacturer or something already has that data.

Akiba

12 June 2022 2:29am

A bit opposite of what you're looking for but according to this, the share of non-NFC enabled phones was 10% in 2020. They don't state their source unless you pay, but I suspect that's in terms of total phone models, not total phones in use. So it's highly likely that phones with no NFC in use is much higher than that. 

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discussion

Heart rate detected with accelerometers

Max Czapanskiy

1 June 2022 11:41pm

Hi everyone! I'm new to WildLabs, so I wanted to introduce myself by sharing some of my recent research. We demonstrated that (under the right conditions) high-resolution...

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Stephanie O'Donnell

2 June 2022 8:08am

Hi Max, 

Well firstly, welcome! This is a great intro - I'm looking forward to having a poke around these links and reading more about your work. Sounds like you might well be interested in the topic of our meetup next week - we'll be talking about the future of biologging and biologging, the emerging tech and questions we should be paying attention to. I can't remember if I've seen your name pop up in our last few events, but hopefully  will see you there! More below if you're interested!

Steph 

 

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discussion

Argos satellite tag open-source grant

Thomas Gray

14 August 2020 5:43pm

Hello everyone,  I hope everyone is doing well in light of the global and local issues we all deal with on a regular basis. (Not fun!) I am working on announcing a...

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Thomas Gray

26 August 2020 4:07pm

The official announcement went out yesterday - https://mailchi.mp/1e130f609ed2/august2020?e=[UNIQID]

Thomas Gray

31 May 2022 3:56pm

We are still running this grant program albeit with subtle changes to improve the hardware/service agreement (in your favor). 


If you want to build your own tag, have a passion for open-source, and at minimum have a North American ship-to address, reach out.

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article

WILDLABS Virtual Meetups Season Four: Tracking Progress

WILDLABS Team

29 April 2022 9:57am

This season, we’re bringing together leading engineers, conservationists, and academics to explore the future of technology in movement ecology and ask where exactly investment is needed to catapult this field forward....

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event

WILDLABS Virtual Meetup: Data Analysis in Movement Ecology

WILDLABS Team

26 April 2022 12:00am

Our second meetup in Season 4 explored the latest advancements and emerging developments in data analysis for movement ecology. On Wednesday, May 11, we heard short talks from leading experts Sara Beery, Somayeh Dodge, ...

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discussion

Firetail - visualization of tracks and sensor data

Lars Holst Hansen

9 April 2022 5:12pm

I have recently been closely cooperating with the develpopers of the Firetail software - a program to visualize tracking and sensor data for movement ecology - to get them to...

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Tobias Petri

22 April 2022 7:21am

Hi Lars,

thanks a lot for the recommendation and this great use case!

Our team at Firetail is very enthusiastic about pushing the boundaries for the visualization and annotation of large datasets and it is great to see our work towards a Vectronic acceleration workflow was successul.

If there are researchers on wildlabs that are interested in the process, we should compile a short step-by-step tutorial. This would help to get started with Vectronic acc visuals/annotation.

In general: Firetail is not limited to specific tags vendors. We aim to support a complete set of GPS/Acceleration/Sensor data... if you experience problems with your data sets, don't hesitate to contact us!

Tobias

Tobias Petri

22 April 2022 7:47am

Hi Truphena,

Firetail is designed with animal telemetry in mind. But, you could import any kind of data that features latitute, longitude and some kind of ID (plus whatever sensors you have) like ship vessels, air traffic and so on. It is mostly a matter of getting the formats straight, but our support can help you with that.

Some adaptions may be required, but Firetail has grown with the community use cases from day one, we do not intend to change this any time soon.

What kind of data are you working on?

A good place to start may be the manual or, as Lars mentionend, our video tutorials (I linked the beginner's tutorial). You can also contact our support for specific questions.

Tobias

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article

News: The Latest in Conservation Tech

WILDLABS Team

10 March 2022 12:00am

Check out this round-up of three of the latest news stories from the conservation tech world.  See more conservation tech news by subscribing to our bi-monthly digest. 

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careers

Opportunities: PhD Graduate Assistantship

University of Maine

8 March 2022 12:00am

The University of Maine is seeking qualified applicants for a PhD position that will focus on migration ecology of American woodcock and utilizes GPS transmitter to collect migration data.  Apply by 1st April 2022 for...

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discussion

Dog GPS Loggers

Roland Kays

21 December 2021 8:06pm

Hi Everyone We'd like to do some pet dog tracking but are having a hard time finding a good tag.  We used to use i-got-U's but they don't seem to be available...

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Rob Appleby

19 February 2022 11:20pm

@alsnothome the SnapperGPS looks sooooooo SWEET!. I am super-duper keen to try it out! 

Amanda Matthes

20 February 2022 10:50am

I'm co-developing SnapperGPS as part of my PhD. We're currently working on getting a release on GroupGets. Everything is moving a little slowly because of the chip shortage, though.

Happy to hear there's interest!

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article

Technical Difficulties: The Death of Giants

Christie Sampson

3 November 2021 12:00am

In her contribution to the Technical Difficulties Editorial Series, Christie Sampson shares how the devastating experience of losing collared elephants to an unexpected poaching threat lead to an improved understanding...

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article

Technical Difficulties: Can You Hear Me Now?

Gayle Pedersen

19 October 2021 12:00am

In her contribution to the Technical Difficulties Editorial Series, Gayle Pedersen discusses how the failure of underlying infrastructure can complicate conservation technology work, and how the culture of avoiding...

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article

The need for speed in Sea Turtle Telemetry

Arribada Initative

15 October 2021 12:00am

 In this article, you will get a glimpse of how Arribada Initiative recognizes the advantages of incorporating SnapperGPS receivers into existing tag designs  to acquire fast GPS fixes within the marine environment....

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article

Technical Difficulties: A Deployment Checklist

Alina Peter

13 October 2021 12:00am

In Alina Peter's and Kristen Snyder's contribution to the Technical Difficulties Editorial Series, you'll receive a practical checklist of factors and questions to consider at various stages of your conservation...

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article

Technical Difficulties: Tracking Thunderbird

Ellie Warren

8 October 2021 12:00am

In her article for the Technical Failures Editorial Series, WILDLABS' Ellie Warren discusses how the loss of one tagged sea turtle represents the wider challenges faced by conservation efforts, and how the collaborative...

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