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
Ph.D Speech-Hearing Sciences; 3D Designer/Printer interested in building/testing/deploying standardized environmental recording platforms for scientists and engineers in developing countries.
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Want to compete in the iWildCam 2020 competition identifying species in camera trap images to support biodiversity monitoring efforts and automatic species classification model improvements? Because the Workshop on Fine...
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Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi!I would take a look at Although developed for camera trap imagery, it is by no means restricted to such.Cheers,Lars |
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Camera Traps, Community Base, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS, Software and Mobile Apps | 4 months 1 week ago | |
I dont have anything written up but I can tell what parts we used and how we tested.Its pretty straightforward, we used this M10 Enclosure Vent from Blue Robotics: Along with... |
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Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Acoustics, Camera Traps, Climate Change, East Africa Community, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions, Protected Area Management Tools | 4 months 2 weeks ago | |
Hi Nick, Any update from your project? did you find good price value Camera Traps?We in Indonesia don't have local suppliers for any research grade Camera Traps like Bushnell... |
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Camera Traps | 4 months 3 weeks ago | |
Very nice video in the link you posted btw:Here is another less artistic one: |
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Camera Traps, AI for Conservation | 4 months 3 weeks ago | |
I'm also here for this. This is my first comment... I've been lurking for a while.I have 20 years of professional knowledge in design, with the bulk of that being software design... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Software and Mobile Apps | 4 months 3 weeks ago | |
Yep, here:Currently it only installs on older Jetsons as in the coming weeks I’ll finish the install code for current jetsons.Technically speaking, if you were an IT specialist... |
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Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps | 4 months 4 weeks ago | |
HiWe are sharing the pipeline for automated annotation and training of ReWilding Dataset. Blog:https://www.... |
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Camera Traps | 5 months ago | |
Thank you for sharing! Super interesting, as we don't see many underwater stereo cameras! We also use Blue Robotics components in our projects and have found them reliable and... |
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Sensors, Camera Traps, Marine Conservation | 5 months 1 week ago | |
Will you accept personal/hobbyist focused on conservation on their small plots of land (10-100 acres)?I would, and know others, who would happily pay more than the official... |
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Camera Traps, Climate Change, Community Base, Connectivity, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Sensors, Wildlife Crime | 5 months 2 weeks ago | |
Oh I see recent threads on the topic. Sharing here to link people over. |
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Camera Traps | 5 months 2 weeks ago | |
Hi Titus,I've used latching solenoids as a release in a fresh water application. The product linked to is the one I have used, but has been discontinued (it's been quite a while... |
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Camera Traps | 5 months 2 weeks ago | |
Hi,This is a really late answer but I was new to wildlabs then. I have a security appliance that uses state of the AI models and user defined polygon areas of interest that... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict, Camera Traps, Sensors | 5 months 3 weeks ago |
Apply Now: AI for Conservation Office Hours
18 January 2023 5:15pm
BoomBox camera trap models?
1 June 2022 6:46pm
16 January 2023 10:41am
Hi @Freaklabs and anyone still here!
@hikinghack recently conducted an autopsy of the Browning Strike Force HD Pro X (BTC-5HDPX) camera trap that I got, and I've posted some photos in this Flickr album:
In particular, there's a close-up of the board:
An initial look by my friend @htarold suggests that it might be possible to tap into the triggering mechanism:
But I wonder if @Freaklabs has any insight into how this compares to Boombox camera traps that you have worked with??
18 January 2023 11:20am
The PIR motion sensor is at the top of the device board. You can see they are using a 3-pin analog motion sensor. From there it goes into a processing circuit. Unfortunately it looks like they built their own PIR processing circuit to determine motion so it would need to be reverse engineered to determine where to connect to.
Interview for Technologies in Conservation
24 November 2022 10:07am
16 January 2023 2:42pm
I'd be happy to chat with you if you wanted! My expertise is within passive acoustic monitoring particularly. The Conservation Tech Directory might be useful for you in identifying relevant actors within the space.
16 January 2023 5:16pm
Happy to contribute [email protected]
17 January 2023 5:12pm
My original background is in ecology and conservation, and am now in the elected leadership of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware which convenes researchers developing open source tech for science. I am not working on a specific piece of technology right now, but am happy to contribute some higher-level views for your interview if that helps.
International Congress for Conservation Biology
16 January 2023 2:53pm
Best Camera Trap Models Database: Input Needed
9 February 2021 8:39pm
9 April 2022 11:46am
Many thanks, "mactadpole" for the promising remarks concerning the Browning Dark Ops Pro XD dual-lens BTC-6PXD:
"...we are extremely pleased with the BTC-6PXD. We went with these because they only use 6 aa batteries and they were smaller/lighter than the BTC-8A."
Given the similarity between the western Ecuador conditions you describe and those we face in Costa Rica the Browning - 180$ from Amazon where 37 reviews are predominantly favourable - sounds like the camera for us. Your 12.2.2021 report is now over a year old, however. Please, has anything changed since then? Any other candidate we should consider?
5 August 2022 2:00pm
Hi Shawn,
I am looking into camera traps to use for an arboreal project in Panama, I am really interested in your experience of mounting camera traps up trees. The photo shows an interesting mount, did you make it yourselves?
How were the seals on the Brownings? I have been tempted to go for reconyx cause they have really good o-ring seals but they may just be too pricy so looking for a reliable alternative.
Anything you can share will be useful.
Cheers
Lucy
15 January 2023 2:08pm
Hi Ellie, did you compile this information and is it avaiblable somewhere?
I need to upgrade the camera system in Baiboosun Nature Reserve Kyrgyzstan and this info would be of great help.
Please check: www.baiboosun.com
Thanks, Luciano.
New issue of BES' Ecological Solutions and Evidence Journal
13 January 2023 3:43am
The British Ecological Society's journals always have topics that will interest our conservation tech community - in this particular issue, you'll find research on a large-scale camera trapping effort to monitor mammals, as well as the role of citizen science in data analysis for that project.
New paper - An evaluation of platforms for processing camera-trap data using artificial intelligence
13 January 2023 12:14am
We review key characteristics of four AI platforms—Conservation AI, MegaDetector, MLWIC2: Machine Learning for Wildlife Image Classification and Wildlife Insights—and two auxiliary platforms—Camelot and Timelapse—that incorporate AI output for processing camera-trap data. We compare their software and programming requirements, AI features, data management tools and output format. We also provide R code and data from our own work to demonstrate how users can evaluate model performance.
New paper - Real-time alerts from AI-enabled camera traps using the Iridium satellite network: A case-study in Gabon, Central Africa
13 January 2023 12:12am
Sending real-time alerts from ecological sensors such as camera traps in areas with poor data connectivity is complex and involves integrating a large number of potentially complex hardware and software components. Our results demonstrate that these components can be successfully integrated to achieve reliable, near real-time alerts from camera traps under challenging field conditions.
Conservation Technology Intern (Vietnam)
11 January 2023 5:00pm
Help : Topics in Remote Sensing and Management of Protected Areas
10 January 2023 11:04am
PhD position (m/f/d) in Insect Ecology and Conservation
9 January 2023 12:53pm
Job: Conservation Technology Specialist (PT)
6 January 2023 12:49am
Otter video help!
5 September 2022 6:57pm
7 September 2022 6:12pm
Thank you for the response! I'm not sure how to find that out. It says MP4. Is that what you're looking for?
21 December 2022 7:46pm
Did you get any further with this Britnee?
26 December 2022 6:54pm
No, I was never able to figure out how to send these to anyone on here. I was hoping to learn how to clear these videos up if possible!
Android smartphone app
22 December 2022 12:13am
Help - Innovative ways to track elephant movement
28 October 2022 4:50pm
4 November 2022 5:24pm
Why would you want to avoid alerting the rangers ?
You don't need high tech for this; elephants leave very obvious tracks and sign.
7 November 2022 12:52am
Hi Tyler,
Would like to introduce you to Ceres Tags products
- Ceres Tags products come in boxes of 5, 10 and 24.
- There are some software partners such as Earthranger, Mapipedia and possibly CiboLabs that would be able to assist you with your mapping vegetation requirements
- Ceres Tag does not require any towers, base stations and infrastructure. This allows you to see any movements from the heard outside of their normal herd (boundary alerts), and you will not be disturbing any of the flora and fauna with infrastructure set up.
- For the timing you are looking at, Ceres Wild pings directly to satellite 24 times a day. For Ceres Trace and Ceres Ranch there are 4 within 24 hours. Taking into consideration, when you set up alert areas, you will get them directly to your phone/laptop via your software of choice
- Ceres Ranch is a reusable tag that has just been launched. Use it on this project, remove the tag and then use the tag on your next project
- The software you choose will assist with the history of your animal movements. Ceres Tag is integrated with 11 software partners and in-development with 18 software partners https://cerestag.com/pages/software-partners
- Understanding it is a short-term project, you would be able to use Ceres Tags products without the additional expense of setting up and removing infrastructure- towers, gateways
- With Ceres Tag, you are purchasing the box of tags and picking a suitable software to deliver the information you require. On average, a box of 10 Ceres Trace Tags, is the same as 1 LoRaWAN tower.
Live Q&A Discussion on Ceres Tag: An animal monitoring Solution! | WILDLABS
Hey Everyone,Are you ready for this next Live Q&A Session? If you're looking for an effective animal monitoring solution, you might want to Join us here in a few minutes at 9am EAT|4pm AEST where Lewis Frost, COO of Ceres Tag, will help us unpack the IoT devices they have for animal monitoring.In this session, Lewis will take us through the features of Ceres Tag, some of their interesting projects so far, some models on animal monitoring, factors to consider when choosing an animal monitoring tag, and much more! A few things you need to know about the Live Q&A session:The session will be moderated, but you can ask questions during and after the session e.g. If you need clarification on a question/answer, you are free to ask. To ask a question that is linked to a specific answer, kindly always press the ‘Reply to @Frostl007' button, type in your question then save to post it.To ensure a proper flow of the discussion, kindly be sure to use the 'Reply to @Frostl007' Before moving to each next question, we will give a ~3 minute window to allow you to ask any questions you have, but if you miss that window, you are totally okay asking the question afterwards.If you have any trouble viewing the questions or replies, please try and Refresh the page If you are present in this session and don’t have any comments, we’d be very happy to see you react using an emoji so that we know you are following through the session! I'm really looking forward to an amazing discussion!Thank you,Netty.
wildlabsnet
14 December 2022 10:49am
I just came across this interesting paper in which seismic monotoring of animals like elephants was mentioned.
This is the study refered to:
Seismic savanna: machine learning for classifying wildlife and behaviours using ground‐based vibration field recordings
Our planet is facing its sixth mass extinction, with hundreds of species disappearing largely because of human activity. To mitigate this existential threat of biodiversity loss, we must monitor and ...
ZSL PublicationsCheers,
Lars
Post Doctoral Fellow - Computer Vision/Arctic Avian Ecology
7 December 2022 4:21am
Camera Trap repairs - suggestions?
26 September 2022 2:15pm
5 December 2022 4:39pm
Thanks a million, @Rob_Appleby @Freaklabs @StephODonnell ! Apologies for the delay on my end - I was busy shifting to (and settling into life on) Príncipe island. A live trouble-shooting session would be very much appreciated, thank you! Given that it is December, and I suspect everyone will be off for holidays quite soon, would sometime in January work? The week of the 9th? Or possibly the week after, depending on when everybody is back from hols. In the meantime, I will check what we have on our field site (for future reference), as well as if we have a multimeter in our Cambridge office.
Many thanks again, and I look forward to hearing from you on when is a good time in January for this.
Kind regards,
Asiem
5 December 2022 4:40pm
Thanks a lot for this, @Colin_Cook !
5 December 2022 4:41pm
Thanks a lot, @rcz133 ! I will certainly check your blog out (thanks heaps for pointing me in its direction).
New paper - Snapshot of the Atlantic Forest canopy: surveying arboreal mammals in a biodiversity hotspot
28 November 2022 4:11pm
Arboreal camera trapping confirms occurrence of the thin-spined porcupine and several critically endangered species in Caparaó National Park, Brazil.
Cameratrap flash overexposure
25 October 2022 11:04am
4 November 2022 5:27pm
I have not used Bushnell camera traps for quite a while, so this may not apply, but most makes have a flash intensity adjustment. If you have already tried that without success then opaque or translucent tape over the LEDs will do the same job.
4 November 2022 7:55pm
We have used cut pieces of translucent milk jug plastic to make a flash attenuator. Stack as many as you need to reduce exposure and tape on.
18 November 2022 7:09pm
Hi @LucyHReaserRe I've found a couple of layers or three of athletic/sports tape does the trick. This kind of thing:
Good luck,
Rob
Automatically tag animals, people and vehicles in cameratrap images and sort them in subfolders
17 November 2022 8:11pm
Camera Issues
2 October 2022 6:57pm
6 November 2022 7:05pm
Thank you so much! this was great information! I will look into the SD card. The SD cards were working fine, but they have stopped. If they were incompatible they wouldn't have worked at first, right?
As for batteries, I am confused. Our photographer at work said lithium doesn't do well in the weather and temperature changes. On here it sounds like you guys are saying lithium is better then alkaline (which the user manual also says to use), who do I listen to?? And how do I find lithium batteries that fit the cameras?
7 November 2022 7:39am
Hi Britnee,
Sometimes cards do just stop working/become incompatible. It could be a firmware glitch, but it's a bit like how a USB thumb drive can stop being recognised in a PC sometimes. I'd try a good quality card no larger than 32GB and with a class 10 rating, format it in the camera and then test it. You could also try formatting the cards that previously worked and trying them again.
Lithium batteries can indeed suffer in the cold (how cold is getting there?), but alkalines are, generally-speaking, a poorer choice all around. Are you using the best quality Duracell or Energizer alkalines? They might be up for the task. You could also consider a rechargeable sealed lead acid or gel battery. They suffer a little in really cold weather (all batteries do to some degree I think), but you could compensate by getting a higher-than-necessary capacity model (for example, double what you might need for a normal deployment). You mostly just need to make or order the correct lead to plug the battery into the camera. It should say somewhere in the manual what connector it uses, but it's usually something like a 1.7mm DC plug (e.g.
CUI Devices PP-013
PP-013 CUI Devices DC Power Connectors DC Power Plugs & Audio Plugs datasheet, inventory, & pricing.
Mouser Electronics) but you'll have to double-check.
Cheers,
Rob
10 November 2022 11:55pm
Perfect, thank you so much!
Underwater Camera Trap Video Confirms 1,100-Mile (1800-km) Swim of Tagged Great White Shark
25 October 2022 10:20am
New conservation tech articles from Mongabay
20 October 2022 7:45pm
Conservation Technology Intern (Vietnam)
19 October 2022 9:22am
Feedback Wanted: Security Enclosures
19 December 2018 9:41am
15 July 2022 9:50pm
(Not sure how I missed this thread earlier).
I think different usage models lead to different security box enclosures. E.g:
1. High Risk Locations: You need the camera to be in a particular location, dictated by something other than optimal theft deterrence, for a long time. Or your site features very large animals (elephants). Here it seems like you pay the price (in weight) to make the thing as secure as possible (including on steel pole sunk into concrete!).
2. Low Risk/Exploratory: You have flexibility on where to place the camera, perhaps aimed at capturing specific animals or behavior, and can place the camera to try to make it less conspicuous to thieves. Also, you may be changing the location frequently. Finally, rules associated with the site may limit disturbance. Here, you'd like some protection, but you'd like to reduce weight and impact to the site.
We do a lot of (2). For this, we use camera-specific, relatively thin gauge, two-piece commercial steel enclosures -- e.g. from CamLockBox.com. These enclosures feature 1/4" holes in the back for securing to a tree; and methods for using a padlock and/or a cable lock to secure the camera in the box. These do a very good job protecting from most animals (bears, not elephants), and deter opportunistic homo sapiens.
13 October 2022 9:35am
Hi all,
Thank you for all your insights. I think @rcz133 has summed it up nicely: security enclosure design depends on the required usage.
I've tried to go for a design that I hope will work in most deployment scenarios. It should provide good mechanical protection from animals and if locked up properly should deter opportunistic theft as proper tools would be needed to get in.
Thanks to Cambridge Design Partnership, I now have a finished design and will be having some built for testing in the next few weeks.
The final specifications were:
- 16 gauge stainless steel.
- The enclosure is made of two parts that are easy to place together into a whole.
- The two enclosure parts fit together tightly with mechanical retention.
- The two enclosure parts are locked together by a padlock and/or a python lock.
- When using a python lock this also locks the camera into the enclosure.
- When locked the enclosure cannot be pried apart with a screwdriver or knife.
- The enclosure locking point positioning makes it difficult for the padlock to be bolt cropped.
- It is easy to place the camera into the enclosure so that it aligns with all lock points and apertures.
- The enclosure securely holds the camera in place with minimal horizontal movement using internal guides or fixtures.
- The bottom half of the enclosure with the camera inserted can be affixed to a tree with a strap or python lock before the top half of the enclosure is attached.
- The enclosure can be affixed to a tree using a strap, python lock or 1/4" mounting screws points.
- The enclosure allows water to easily exit through holes in the bottom and does not allow it too pool in the corners.
- The enclosure provides some cover above the lens aperture to provide sun screening and rain protection to the lens.
- The enclosure is powder coated in a matt colour scheme of dark green or brown for ease of camouflaging.
Once I've got the prototype enclosures I am keen to put them through their paces and do some testing to destruction to find their weaknesses.
If anyone has any tests they would like to see performed please let me know in the thread.
Thanks,
Sam
18 October 2022 2:54pm
This looks like a great spec. Looking forward to seeing final design.
Rainforest SigFox available for use
26 August 2022 6:09pm
26 September 2022 10:20pm
Hi Roland,
This is really amazing, great to hear about your set-up! I'm just wondering what the overall cost was to set up this system? Just thinking in terms of setting up something similar in other parks and what they should expect with regard to price. Would also be great to hear about the overall effort, e.g., hours/team members required. It would be great to have this act as a blueprint for other organizations/research stations wishing to deploy a similar system within their respective national parks/areas/etc.!
10 October 2022 8:33am
Hi Rolland,
Interested too, but why did you choose SigFox (a private network) rather than LoRa (open network)?
Sigfox currently has some financial troubles that, don't know what it will become in the long term.
18 October 2022 11:55am
Hi Everyone,
We chose sigfox becuase it seems to have better range and is plug-play, whereas LoRa requires more custom programming and updating. Getting a gateway cost us $2000 for a year's lease + deposit. We covered solar power. There are also some 'minigateways' you can purchase but I don't know how they compare in range (plan to test). So far we are happy with the performance, in that it has worked consistency with no outages (once we stabilized the power supply). I think the annual costs are about $10 per tag. We are working on a paper that will describe this in more detail. So far just using for tracking tags but also looking at a trap sensor.
cheers
Roland
MegaDetector on Edge Devices ??
19 February 2021 12:30am
30 August 2022 5:05am
Has anyone tried running the MegaDetector model through an optimizer like Amazon SageMaker Neo? It can reduce the overall memory footprint and possibly speed up inference on devices like Raspberry Pi and Jetson.
27 September 2022 10:19am
Great work Luke @sheneman! Having a relatively lightweight bit of hardware to run MDv5 on will open up opportunities for many more people. The upfront financial cost of a Jetson Nano is an order of magnitude less than a computer with a beefy GPU.
I haven't used any of the Nvidia edge devices yet. Do you think it would be possible for someone to make a disk image with MDv5 pre installed to lower the entry barrier of learning a new system, installing software, environments and packages etc.?
A difficulty I have seen for some projects is not having access to or not having internet bandwidth to utilize cloud compute services. If anyone needs to churn through camera trap image processing in a remote field station this may now be possible!
10 October 2022 12:27pm
Great work, unfortunately, I'm not familiar with programming but computer friendly enough to follow a good tutorial. I was wondering if you will share your findings?
Thanks for the work.
Multi-SD card reading hubs
2 October 2022 3:46am
4 October 2022 2:04am
Good point and nice link. My USB 3.0 (errr USB 3.1 Gen 1) portable HDD gets a real read speed of 133 MBps or ~1Gbps. The theoretical max is 5 Gbps but I think the speed is limited by processor used by the HDD/USB bridge controller. Most SD card readers may be more limited even if the SD card can handle higher data rates. That may be why it could be best to just use the multi-port device from SanDisk.
7 October 2022 4:35pm
Jamie,
I have been using a 12-card Lexar Professional Workflow system for several years to process images from 24 trail cameras. The system has 4 bays, with 3 card readers per bay. I wrote software to automatically download and rename the images using metadata read from the info banner burned into the images by the camera. (Alternatively, the software can use the Exif metadata attached to the image.) The software is described in a recent Wildlife Society Bulletin:
The software is available on github:
Don't be put off by "time-lapse recordings" - it works on still images also.
Regards,
Mike Hilton
8 October 2022 12:22am
Have a look at @tessa_rhinehart 's TechTutors on scaling up acoustic surveys. This is addressed at 11 min:
The "hexadecapus" is the hardware, but transfer is automated by naming the SDCards prior to use and scripts take care of the transfer. The scripts may be written up in the audiomoth guide but the kitzes lab have this on github (although it may be mac specific)
New paper: "Examining primate community occurrence patterns in agroforest landscapes using arboreal & terrestrial camera traps"
30 September 2022 8:03pm
Authors examine occurrence patterns of 7 primate species in agroforests in Guinea-Bissau. Arboreal camera traps detected all 7 species, terrestrial cameras detected 5. Heterogeneous spatial responses amongst primates across the agroforest landscape.
8 September 2022 1:21am
Hi Pen-Yuan.
I need to revise what I said before. Browning devices within a specific model number have similar PCBs, ie: we worked with the BTC-8A for the Spec Ops Advantage. They're currently on the BTC-8E which we've found to have a different PCB. So I think the rule we're using on Browning at the moment (and most vendors) are that the model number needs to match, else it's likely the PCB is different. This also happened to us with Bushnell Trophycams. We're running into this issue now with a Boombox customer planning a Browning deployment. We're currently getting the camera trap in so we can reverse engineer the newer model and interface it to Boombox.
Akiba