Camera traps have been a key part of the conservation toolkit for decades. Remotely triggered video or still cameras allow researchers and managers to monitor cryptic species, survey populations, and support enforcement responses by documenting illegal activities. Increasingly, machine learning is being implemented to automate the processing of data generated by camera traps.
A recent study published showed that, despite being well-established and widely used tools in conservation, progress in the development of camera traps has plateaued since the emergence of the modern model in the mid-2000s, leaving users struggling with many of the same issues they faced a decade ago. That manufacturer ratings have not improved over time, despite technological advancements, demonstrates the need for a new generation of innovative conservation camera traps. Join this group and explore existing efforts, established needs, and what next-generation camera traps might look like - including the integration of AI for data processing through initiatives like Wildlife Insights and Wild Me.
Group Highlights:
Our past Tech Tutors seasons featured multiple episodes for experienced and new camera trappers. How Do I Repair My Camera Traps? featured WILDLABS members Laure Joanny, Alistair Stewart, and Rob Appleby and featured many troubleshooting and DIY resources for common issues.
For camera trap users looking to incorporate machine learning into the data analysis process, Sara Beery's How do I get started using machine learning for my camera traps? is an incredible resource discussing the user-friendly tool MegaDetector.
And for those who are new to camera trapping, Marcella Kelly's How do I choose the right camera trap(s) based on interests, goals, and species? will help you make important decisions based on factors like species, environment, power, durability, and more.
Finally, for an in-depth conversation on camera trap hardware and software, check out the Camera Traps Virtual Meetup featuring Sara Beery, Roland Kays, and Sam Seccombe.
And while you're here, be sure to stop by the camera trap community's collaborative troubleshooting data bank, where we're compiling common problems with the goal of creating a consistent place to exchange tips and tricks!
Header photo: ACEAA-Conservacion Amazonica
TerrOïko
PhD Student in statistical ecology
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TerrOïko
I am an ecological data engineer at Terroïko, where I work on OCAPI, a platform for semi-automatic camtrap data annotation, biodiversity data interoperability and biodiversity indicators.
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TerrOïko
R&D Engineer
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Asst. Prof @ MIT with research at the intersection of computer vision, biodiversity monitoring, conservation, and sustainability.
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Arribada Initiative
Senior Project Manager and Field Specialist
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Your friendly Indo-Crocky-Croc
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Wildlife manager. Specialized in mammals, new technologies and abundance estimation
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Aeracoop & Dronecoria
Computer engineer, Drone Pilot, Seed researcher
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Designer based in Denmark
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Arribada Initiative
Director at Arribada, a UK-based conservation technology research & development organisation
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Creative director and artist in love with nature and the use of technology for wildlife conservation.
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Acorn removal study of Nendo Dango, Ecological Restoration Research group at the University of Granada
5 June 2023
New paper in Methods in Ecology and Evolution
24 March 2023
💙 Exciting news from Appsilon! Our flagship project, Mbaza AI, is expanding its impact on nature and biodiversity conservation. We’ve teamed up with the 🦏 Ol Pejeta Conservancy to build a model for classifying images of...
16 March 2023
The Innovation in Practice edition of Methods in Ecology and Evolution is still seeking proposals about conservation technology
6 March 2023
New technology enabling the automated monitoring of moths has been put to rigorous testing in tropical conditions in Panama by an international team of researchers
22 February 2023
Technology to End the Sixth Mass Extinction. Salary: $104k-144K; Location: Washington DC or Seattle WA, potential hybrid; 5+ years of Full stack development experience; Deadline March 15th - view post for full job...
10 February 2023
Are you excited by the potential for new technologies to help monitor the natural world? Do you enjoy communicating your passion for technology and nature with diverse audiences? We are seeking an enthusiastic...
2 February 2023
Consultancy opportunity at ZSL for an experienced monitoring specialist to support species monitoring in rewilding landscapes across Europe
31 January 2023
Are you stuck on an AI or ML challenge in your conservation work? Apply now for the chance to receive tailored expert advice from data scientists! Applications due 27th January 2023
18 January 2023
WILDLABS and Fauna & Flora International are seeking an early career Vietnamese conservationist for 12-month paid internship position to grow and support the Southeast Asia regional community in our global...
11 January 2023
This position focuses on the ecology aspect of the project, while a second PhD in Ilmenau will be dealing with programming/AI development. Because of the high temporal resolution of our data, we can investigate how land...
9 January 2023
September 2024
October 2024
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Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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greetings! i sent you a PM regarding this, feel free to contact me however is most convenient for you - regards,chris |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Climate Change, East Africa Community, Wildlife Crime | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Great, thank you both! I'll follow up for introductions/ contact info |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Hi Adrián, Bracis et al. {recurse} package in R allow those time between visits comparisons. I had problems running the package with my data, though. |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Ah yes, these must have broken when we moved over to our new site. They should work now - thanks for flagging! |
+2
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Camera Traps | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Indeed, I'll be there too! I like to meet new conservation friends with morning runs, so I will likely organize a couple of runs, maybe one right near the conference, and... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps, Remote Sensing & GIS | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Hi everyone! The Fine Grained Visual Categorization Workshop (FGVC) is hosting its 10th rendition at CVPR this June in Vancouver. A huge... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Marine Conservation | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Yes, but for our needs that are not powerful enough |
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Acoustics, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Camera Traps, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Thank you so much for your reply! I'll look in to this now :) |
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Acoustics, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS, Software and Mobile Apps | 1 year 2 months ago | |
The eVorta website is still VERY empty but will be worth keeping an eye out for for sure. At first, from the notes above, I thought that this was Edge AI but in the article linked... |
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Camera Traps, Connectivity | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Hey there! Not sure what your funding constraints are but I have been using Reolink Go PT, which is solar powered. This model has been discontinued. However they have an upgraded... |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 2 months ago | |
We have made available our underwater videos on YouTube as a playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnhVZKKy8WkZKriCIV6r7upWhHNVrU_7L It's about 1.113 short video... |
+2
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Marine Conservation | 1 year 3 months ago | |
Hi Steph, This should be a simple project. Recently I came across a website with a sample video I am not sure whether it was from the wild Labs website. Where a camera is... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 1 year 3 months ago |
Computer Vision Competitions on Natural-World datasets
5 April 2023 4:26pm
AI for European Wildlife Challenge
29 March 2023 10:39am
Global shortage of Raspberry Pis - What are the alternatives
3 November 2022 10:27am
28 March 2023 9:37pm
Have you considered Arduinos?
29 March 2023 10:13am
UPDATE: The Banana Pi didnt work out for us as it was not possible to track back all the components and ensure that they were responsibly sourced. The Rock board did work for us and we were able to port our system onto this. We will be rolling out units using this over the summer. It also looks like Raspberry Pis are coming back on line and we were able to secure a bulk order for deliver mid-summer
29 March 2023 10:14am
Yes, but for our needs that are not powerful enough
Exploring storage options for mass data collection
22 March 2023 3:20am
22 March 2023 7:36pm
Hi Adam!
I mostly live within the ecoacoustics space so I'll just speak on the hydrophone part of your request; Arbimon is a free web/cloud-based platform with unlimited storage for audio files. We've got an uploader app as well for mass-uploading lots of files. There's also a bunch of spectrogram visualization/annotation tools and analysis workflows available. It's AWS running under the hood.
I have some experience working directly with AWS & Microsoft Azure, and I've found personally that AWS was more user-friendly and intuitive for the (fairly simplistic) kinds of tasks I've done.
27 March 2023 5:23am
Camera trap. Snow Leopard reserve Kyrgyzstan. Solar+4G+Video. System upgrade.
15 December 2022 3:32pm
16 March 2023 6:05am
Hi Kumar
I wanted to contact you about the possibility of collaborating in the project I mentioned before. Where is good to contact you? [email protected] ? You can also email me from our website www.baiboosun.com
Looking forward from hearing from you
Luciano Foglia
24 March 2023 9:14pm
Look into evorta.
It is an Australian company that is doing exactly this.
You can.
- Have an offline camera that can be trained to ID specific species,
- send you just the photos of those species via satellite
- Or if you can get 4g send you all the photos to their online database.
- They also have an online database that allows you to analyse the data in real time.
- They can also hack normal camera traps so they can send photos back to the main unit to process and send valid photos. That way you only need one ‘smart’ camera. All the rest can be your exsisting cameras. You just need to use your sd card slot.
Here is an article here
Best to contact him through email.
I’ll send it to you privately
25 March 2023 1:11pm
The eVorta website is still VERY empty but will be worth keeping an eye out for for sure. At first, from the notes above, I thought that this was Edge AI but in the article linked to it seems that the ML and animal ID happens after 4G download of the images.
I will just throw a link to relatively recent paper where a standard cameratrap was "hacked" and Edge AI ID could send alerts via Iridium: Real-time alerts from AI-enabled camera traps using the Iridium satellite network and here is more from some of the authors of that paper:
African Field School on Design and Analyses of Camera Trap Studies – 2023
24 March 2023 1:28pm
Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Mbaza AI
16 March 2023 7:18pm
Solar panel recs for camera traps
27 February 2023 9:49pm
6 March 2023 2:53pm
PS- This seems like an opp for a good "build your own" resource that would add to those here and I'm sure some could do a lot better than anything I've been able to find.
13 March 2023 12:44am
Hi Chris, we looked into solar powered battery systems for Reconyx because we had a customer want to use them along side our Solar BAR bioacoustic recorder. We made a power out port and custom cable to run his camera traps and also so someone else in France could use them with another company's bat detector. Typically they had a 10W solar panel, 8Ah lead acid battery and a charge controller built into a sealed box stuck to the back of the solar panel. You could save some weight by choosing a LiFePo4 battery instead like this but you can only use them when you know you will charge them when the temperature is over 0 degrees C or you will damage them. Use lead acid if you're not sure they will always be charged over 0 degrees C.
12V_10AH_LFP
Welcome to Lanplus Australia! Lanplus is the leading Battery Superstore to Buy Batteries Online in Australia. Huge range of Batteries and Accessories for every application. Shop Now!
You can find MPPT solar charge modules on Aliexpress and Ebay. I used the search term "mppt solar charge module". LiFePo4 can be charged at the same voltage as lead acid and most lead acid chargers do constant current charging anyway becuse you can use it with lithium batteries then as well. It's better to get a LiFePo4 charger if you can get it to make sure it's constant current then constant voltage but they're pretty tough unless you charge them under 0 degrees.
A typical 10W 12v solar panel will have it's Maximum Power Point at 18v so your charge controller must be set to 18v as it's input voltage. The panel will make a maximum of 20v when it's not plugged into anything. A 10W panel will make about 0.5A so if you pick a 3A charger it'll get limited to 0.5A because of the panel.
A module like this where the parameters are adjustable might be good.
On the other hand if you want something that can't be fiddled with after you made it get one with 18v MPPT voltage and set to charge a lead acid or whatever battery chemistry that you're using. Often using terms like lead acid when you search will help narrow it down. If you're going to use a 12v LiFePo4 note that's is a 3S 3.7v pack. That is 3 x 3.7v makes 11.1v (which they call a 12v pack).
If you're unsure feel free to email me at [email protected] to check what you're planning to buy.
If you're gluing a box with the charge controller onto the back of a solar panel use neutral cure silicone or check with the supplier about what glue you can use if you need something stronger than that.
If there is sufficient demand for these sorts of accessories please let me know and we can consider it as a product.
Mark
14 March 2023 1:51pm
Hey there! Not sure what your funding constraints are but I have been using Reolink Go PT, which is solar powered. This model has been discontinued. However they have an upgraded version. Adding link here.
I have used this in the field in the swaps of Florida, exposed to heat, humidity and moisture. It has held up really well. Great sensors that can even be adjusted for sensitivity.
Proposals wanted for Innovation in Practice
6 March 2023 10:34pm
Underwater Fish Datasets from the Mediterranean
15 August 2022 11:45pm
26 September 2022 9:32pm
Not sure if audio data would be of any use to you, but if so FishSounds has some - I just tried their search function and there is a location tag for 'Mediterranean & Black Sea'.
You might try reaching out to the folks at Name that Fish, Innovasea, or perhaps an entity on the Fisheries Tech list would have Mediterranean stuff?
21 October 2022 7:52am
Hi,
If this is still relevant, you can try reaching out to the Belmaker lab, they do BRUV surveys in the eastern Mediterranean and have hours of video, some of it I believe is annotated. Particularly, Shahar might be helpful, he's the PhD student running point on the project.
2 March 2023 2:03pm
We have made available our underwater videos on YouTube as a playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnhVZKKy8WkZKriCIV6r7upWhHNVrU_7L
It's about 1.113 short video clips with annotation and each is linked to the corresponding www.iNaturalist.org observations. The iNaturalist.org observations are research quality and have been uploaded to GBIF.org. The observations have been made between 2014 and 2022 around the Ionian Islands (Greece).
If you would need the original videos please contact me.
Elephant Recognition
14 January 2023 10:01am
14 January 2023 3:39pm
I can be reached at [email protected]
16 January 2023 2:30pm
Hi Simon,
i've popped you an email too, but actually sharing some more information here about what you're after will mean you'll be able to get better help from our full community.
What are you looking for in particular? It sounds like there is particular piece of software you've seen that could be useful in your work - do you know what it's called? What do you need to do - image recognition, call recognition? Alerts when calls happen or are you looking for something more detailed? The more you tell us about what you're trying to do the better we'll be able to help!
Steph
26 February 2023 1:44pm
Hi Steph,
This should be a simple project. Recently I came across a website with a sample video I am not sure whether it was from the wild Labs website. Where a camera is seen spotting a raccoon and giving an alert saying raccoon detected. My expectations are on similar lines, the only difference here is to change the raccoon to an elephant or a tiger. Please advice.
camera with fast trigger- and recovery time?
12 January 2023 6:56pm
27 January 2023 5:40pm
@Stephanie as luck would have it, I recently released some firmware for Browning BTC-7E-HP5 and BTC-8E-HP5 cameras that contains a number of feature enhancements, including the oft-asked-for seconds-level resolution on the Date/Time in the image info strip. See my recent blog posts on the topic, which incudes pointers for where to find the firmware images. Links below
23 February 2023 11:44am
Hi Robert, thanks a lot for sharing this! I guess, this won't work with Patriot? For my setting it is also very important, that animals do not detect or react to the camera, so I think the PAtriot is in this issue better than the Recon Force HP5. Also the battery life has to last for 3-4 month, that is why I prefer a camera with 8 batteries, like the Patirot over a camera with 6 batteries like the Dark OPS. The spec ops elite hp5 is obviously sold out on the browning website.
26 February 2023 3:25am
@Stephanie well this just goes to show how good Browning market segmentation is :) Yes -- it sounds like the "clickless" Patriot is a good choice for you. I am in the process of adding support of these features in several more models. I'll add Patriots to my list.
Using drones and camera trapping to track New Hampshire’s moose populations
22 February 2023 9:38pm
Interesting article that links to research on how technology has made studying moose populations easier, with particularly good explanation of what makes moose populations difficult to track.
Kennedy Muriithi - How do I get started with setting up my camera trap to monitor wildlife? - YouTube
22 February 2023 12:52pm
Are you looking to use camera traps in your conservation project? Check out this starter tutorial from Ol Pejeta's Kennedy Muriithi - he'll walk you through everything you need to know about getting started with camera traps!
Tropical pilot of insect camera traps
22 February 2023 12:17pm
Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s Annual Meeting 2023
20 February 2023 10:56pm
Catch up with The Variety Hour: February 2023
14 February 2023 6:26pm
Need Assistance regarding selecting a camera
23 December 2022 10:50am
27 January 2023 10:28am
Thank You for the discussion threads.
27 January 2023 12:04pm
Hi @vishnuthavara so you need a camera that does both timelapse and is motion activated? Something like this maybe:
11 February 2023 3:20am
Hi Vishnu,
Considering only motion detection video, it is possible to modify (most) camera traps to trigger an external piece of equipment like an audio recorder. I'm not aware of any suitable off-the-shelf recorder, but I can build you one. However many camera traps that will take video will also record audio, although the quality may not be suitable for all types of audio analysis.
Deep Sea BRUVS Development
28 January 2023 1:41am
11 February 2023 3:07am
Hi Titus,
If the usual syntactic foam sources aren't available, an option may be to add an empty dry housing or use a larger housing for the BRUV, just to provide the buoyancy.
You can make your own syntactic foam from glass microballoons and epoxy resin, but this will require experimentation and testing. For sub-surface buoyancy, you could also use a jerry can full of cooking oil, or a coil of polypropylene rope.
Hiring Full Stack Developer at Conservation X Labs
10 February 2023 5:35pm
How do I get started with setting up my camera trap to monitor wildlife?
6 February 2023 5:42pm
Job: Building a network of conservation tech across continents
2 February 2023 1:50pm
Consultancy opportunity: Wildlife monitoring specialist
31 January 2023 11:26am
Solar panels in the tropics
26 January 2023 12:28am
27 January 2023 1:23pm
Hi Tom,
I'm with Akiba, you have to test. A collaborator has deployed solar-augmented kit in secondary jungle and some of them got enough light, and others didn't, so it can work. The open circuit voltage of solar panels doesn't change a whole lot in dim light, but the current drops drastically. So you would choose an oversize panel of the same voltage (or a bit higher).
Thanks
27 January 2023 3:56pm
I've been intrigued by this topic. Thinking about ways you could use drones or some kind of launcher to deploy panels above the canopy. Sadly I live in the great white north so I have no way of testing any concepts. Maybe even some kind of solar balloon that could float above the canopy. Interesting design problem.
30 January 2023 10:10am
Hey Tom,
Since the output is dependent on a couple of factors such as the solar irradiance of the place, shading from the canopy, the type of solar panels (mono, poly or amorphous) and orientation of the panels, etc, I'd suggest you use a software to simulate the different parameters to get an almost accurate estimation of the output. You can try PVsyst- it has a free month trial (I haven't used it before but I hear it's great) or any other PV software :)
Does anyone have spare Bushnell Impulse traps?
20 January 2023 3:24pm
27 January 2023 11:53am
Hi @timmh I've posted a link to this on Twitter too so fingers crossed you get some replies!
All the best,
Rob
Time-lapse cameras for monitoring nesting birds in the Arctic
11 January 2023 6:37am
17 January 2023 9:28pm
Hi Chris,
We developed a time-lapse camera for Penguin Watch that ran for 3 years straight in Antarctica, so should be able to survive in the Arctic. With your Plotwatcher did you use any supplementary solar (we do in the summer months). If not, we're aiming to upgrade the camera and introduce a lower power camera module this year, which should get you the 500k images on 4 x AA 1.5v batteries, but we're a number of months away from that build so couldn't help you right away. It would be good to keep in touch to see where you get and we can help you downstream.
More on the current camera here;
20 January 2023 1:03am
Thanks Alasdair!
The Plotwatchers and Brinnos didn't require any solar for the 500K on 4aa batteries. We place the cams near the nest (actually at the nest peering into the nest bowl with a new design I came up with where the only thing above ground is a ribbon cable and the camera board attached to a metal rod we lag blot to the tundra, the batteries and main board are in a 1020 pelican case and buried; see below for an image of the above-ground portion of the cam and an image of a nest from a cam [if you look closely you can see one of the eggs just hatched and there are now 3 eggs and 1 chick in the bowl]).
I'd be very interested in what you all are working on for the next design. How small would it be?
27 January 2023 11:28am
Thanks Chris,
Probably quite similar in size to your existing setup above, but we'd use two Li-ion rechargable batteries most likely (could be an 18500). I'll be sure to share more information later this year.
Cheers,
Alasdair
Advanced Field School in Computational Ecology
25 January 2023 2:54pm
17 April 2023 6:06pm