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
- @Romain
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Biologist in Geneva
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World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
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- @NevilleCLS
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CLS (Collecte Localisation Satellites)
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- @Riley
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I'm a Data Scientist at Western EcoSystems Technology. I am interested in AI processing and statistical modeling of acoustic data and camera trap and drone imagery.
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- @Mumonkan
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Wild Me
Software Engineer for Wildlife Conservation
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PhD Student working on acoustics and hunting in tropical forests
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- @volkankorkmaz
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I have been working at the Underwater Association , to protect nature since 94 . Since 1992, I have been a PADI diving instructor
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Smart Parks
Founder of Smart Parks - www.smartparks.org / Founder of OpenCollar - https://opencollar.io
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Dzanga-Ndoki national park biodiversity monitoring
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Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Looking for infra‐red CCTV monitoring cameras to install at perimeter fence to aid remote assessment and evidence capture of suspected... |
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Camera Traps | 6 years ago | |
We want to understand how or if time-lapse imagery is used to monitor wildlife and landscapes in real-time and... |
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Camera Traps | 6 years ago | |
Just signposting this group to the Camera trapping workshop event to be held at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Thursday... |
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Camera Traps | 6 years ago | |
Hi Damien, Lora technology enables a range of very efficient solutions that you can deploy over a large area. We provide consultancy and field support for deploying such... |
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Camera Traps | 6 years 1 month ago | |
Dear All Our group in Australia has developed a device for monitoring wild dogs/dingoes in remote areas and have a fully authomated system using Iridium and or 3-4G... |
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Camera Traps | 6 years 1 month ago | |
Sounds great! I am doing the almost same thing, since here we have a problem between elephant and human living in the same area and conflict a lot. We would like to warn people... |
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Camera Traps | 6 years 1 month ago | |
My preference is to use Adobe Lightroom, allowing me to move forwards or backwards one frame at a time. I can also adjust the exposure. This is an example from one of my videos.... |
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Camera Traps | 6 years 1 month ago | |
I'm honored to be part of this WILDLABS group and specifically this Camera Trap forum. I hope that what I've learned weekly over... |
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Camera Traps | 6 years 1 month ago | |
Consultancy opportunity with WWF-UK Collation and cleaning of global camera-trapping data Interested in getting hands-on experience... |
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Camera Traps | 6 years 1 month ago | |
The sequence of images in the attached brief report shows why camera traps must be tested with real animal targets, and not with humans. The camera easily detects a human, but... |
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Camera Traps | 6 years 4 months ago | |
Hi Egil, When you mention 'location' you refer to the location of the images from where they are imported from? And not the gps location from the EXIF data if it's... |
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Time-lapse camera trap recomendations
19 April 2022 10:42am
9 June 2022 1:22pm
Hi Meredith
We used some cheap Browning trail cams to record grey seal behaviour on the Farne Islands over the last autumn as a timelapse. We recorded an image every 1 min during the pupping season, which you probably don't need not need to record glacial melt, and they performed brilliantly. The batteries (8 x Lithium AA) lasted the whole of the season, from Mid October until the end of December, but we had to periodically swap the 32Gb SD cards as they would fill up after about 3-4 weeks. We also had to tape over the movement detector as that function still works even when timelapse is in operation.
At the end of the season, we switched to every 2 min to pick up the final waifs and strays and to get some info on the moult, but, due to logistical reasons, we didn't have the chance to replace the batteries, nor could we change the SD cards. Even so, one of the cameras lasted until mid April i.e. over 6 months on a single set of batteries. We only had one of the eight cameras break and that was because a seal went over the top of the camera wrenching it from is anchorage point and eventually into the sea! It did get washed up but was in a sorry state after all that!. The others were all working perfectly and were ready for the seabird season.
Happy to provide more info if you need it
Richard
28 June 2022 3:42pm
Hi Meredith,
Here's a little more information about the Arribada cameras. They are solar powered and received enough power in the Antarctic winter continue photographing. We programmed them to take an image every hour, which might frequent enough for you to monitor glacial ice. Even with 3 years of continuous monitoring, the memory card did not fill up. I think they are priced a little higher than 90 USD, but they can stand alone without maintenance for a long time. Depending on how remote your field site is, that might be beneficial.
We can send over some of the sea ice images we collected. They're fun and interesting to look at if nothing else.
New Conservation Tech Directory update
27 June 2022 4:45pm
Floating mount/base for cameratrap?
23 June 2022 2:36pm
23 June 2022 8:49pm
@Rob_Appleby @Freaklabs
24 June 2022 6:07am
I haven't tried anything like a floating mount for camera traps so would love to stay posted on how it goes. It would open up a lot of possibilities, but it sounds quite complicated too.
How do you store your camera traps?
2 June 2022 5:21pm
8 June 2022 1:15pm
Hi Erika,
Suggestions coming in over on Twitter:
In socks in a cupboard.
— Lisette Mill - Agvocate (@agvocate_au) June 8, 2022
17 June 2022 4:37pm
I store my Cameras in one gallon plastic bags with a zipper lock. Most cameras will fit in that size bag. There is a note card that goes in the bag, The note card lasts longer in the bag and does not smear which it will if you write on the outside and is very important if you are running a lot of cameras. You can make a nice note card with a word processor and lay out everything you want to note. The Notes can be whatever you want to track but the most useful is the brand and model, the date the camera was purchased, The Date it went into the storage bag, Notes on if the camera has been updated. The camera number, the password if the camera needs a password, The person who put the camera in the bag with their full name and the date, A note on how the camera did on it's last deployment, Camera works fine, YES, or whatever might be wrong is listed. I would also list any special features that the camera can perform, such has WIFI enable, Cell Camera, etc. I also make sure the Cameras number is easy to see on the card. When the cameras go out they should have a camera number on the inside of the camera so you can track it in your field notes and make sure all the bags come back from deployment so they are ready for when the cameras come back in from the field.
The batteries are removed from the camera, When I bring a camera in from the field I test each battery with a battery tester. If all the batteries are still good that information is noted on the bag card that the batteries were tested and their strength. Keeping the batteries with the camera keeps you from mixing batteries of various strengths. Remove any bad batteries and note if a new one has been added. If you decide to replace all the batteries, Note on the card that they are NEW and their strength because all new batteries should be tested to make sure you did not get a bad one. If batteries are not available put that on the Note card, NOTE, removing the batteries will usually require all the settings to be redone, I still put on the note card, CAMERA NEEDS NEW SETTINGS.
I also put in the SD Cards, with SD size on the Camera Card. Some of my older cameras only take a 32 gig or smaller, while my new cameras take 125 Gig SD cards. If putting out a camera for a very long run I want to grab one that can take a large SD card. I usually have two SD cards for each camera so they can be swapped out but keep the same cards. Put on the Camera Card that the SD card should reformatted before the next deployment or you can reformat the SD card before the batteries are removed, but NOTE on the camera card that the SD cards are formatted and ready to go. This is a good idea so you know before storage that the SD cards work.
Last I add one packet of Silica Dry packs. The bags are 5 grams. I use DRY and DRY. I got them in a 50 packet bag from Amazon, about 8 bucks. They are cheap and do a great job of removing all the moisture from the Camera, batteries, SD card, and keeps them dry for even very very long storage.
Hope this helps, when the camera number goes up the more you need to keep them organized.
17 June 2022 4:40pm
I forgot to add, I put the cameras in the bag with the doors or camera halves OPEN so the moisture does not stay in a closed camera, we want everything to stay dry.
Snapshot USA Survey Coordinator
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Interval based video for behavior recording
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Case Study: Cape Leopard Trust uses WildID to process camera trap image data
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Advice Needed: Camera Trap Occupancy Modeling for Small Data Set
16 March 2022 7:33pm
25 March 2022 5:02pm
I'll take a look into these options, thank you for the advice!
26 March 2022 10:59am
Couple other papers looking at predator-prey interactions with camera trap data & multi-species occupancy models (though you may/probably know about some of them already!) -
Van der Weyde, L. K., Mbisana, C., & Klein, R. (2018). Multi-species occupancy modelling of a carnivore guild in wildlife management areas in the Kalahari. Biological Conservation, 220, 21-28. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320717316464.
Murphy, A., Kelly, M. J., Karpanty, S. M., Andrianjakarivelo, V., & Farris, Z. J. (2019). Using camera traps to investigate spatial co‐occurrence between exotic predators and native prey species: a case study from northeastern Madagascar. Journal of Zoology, 307(4), 264-273. https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jzo.12645.
Kleiven, E. F., Barraquand, F., Gimenez, O., Henden, J. A., Ims, R. A., Soininen, E. M., & Yoccoz, N. G. (2021). A dynamic occupancy model for interacting species with two spatial scales. bioRxiv, 2020-12. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.16.423067v2.abstract.
28 March 2022 6:47pm
These are great, thank you!
News: The Latest in Conservation Tech (March 24)
24 March 2022 12:00am
Experience with Microwave Motion Sensors!
23 February 2022 10:22am
16 March 2022 3:07pm
@TomRS @greghall and @htarold my initial (and brief) tests with the microwave sensor (same as this one: https://wiki.dfrobot.com/MicroWave_Sensor_SKU__SEN0192) I have suggest it's really sensitive to movement at fairly close range (~2m or less). Whilst this is impressive (like, it can detect my finger moving a few mm @ ~1-2m), it suggests that in order to avoid a lot of false positives/blank images, a fairly high tolerance or threshold would have to be set in the code. This will take a bit of trial and error to get right I reckon. Even though it has an in-buit potentiometer to toggle 'sensitivity' (equates to distance), even at the lowest setting, which is what I have it at, it's still really sensitive out at several metres. It definitely does appear to have an ability to tell the difference between a 'one off' or superficial movement, and more consistent movement that might be expected when an animal moves through an area. Maybe a combo PIR (interrupt) and microwave sensor (double checks after wakeup) could be a goer...although that could be a bit slow...Anyway, thought I'd share...
20 March 2022 5:20pm
20 March 2022 6:05pm
Thanks @PaulG and @TomRS I've now ordered some of the same model units, so shall hopefully get to test em out soon!
Cheers,
Rob
Apply now: Women in Conservation Technology Programme, Kenya
8 March 2022 12:00am
Introducing the WILDLABS On the Edge Fellows
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Comparisons: Close-up Lenses for Camera Traps
9 January 2018 8:49am
14 January 2022 9:34pm
14 January 2022 10:28pm
19 January 2022 11:29am
Wifi trail camera
3 December 2021 8:47pm
16 January 2022 11:41pm
This seems like an eminently sensible thing to try. The main issue I've seen with most wifi cameras is that their antennas are omnidirectional - i.e. they send in every (horizontal) direction, because they don't know where the other wifi endpoint is. That means their signal doesn't go very far, but it's easy to connect. The tplink (and ubiquiti) long range devices have very directional antennas, so their signal is very focussed in that direction, which effectively means it remains quite strong for some distance. They also have to listen for the (more-interesting) return signal though from the wifi camera, and that could cause you grief. However, the highly-directional antenna can pick up fainter signals, from the direction they are pointing at, so it may be ok.
Getting wifi (or any radio signal) over any distance depends a lot on circumstances (distances, terrain, vegetation, weather, interference, ...) so I can't generalise to say this would/wouldn't work. You'd have to try it and see (or get into wifi signal strength measurements and calculations, which you can do with some apps). Some cameras also have removable antennas, so you could replace an omnidirectional (stick) antenna with something much more directional. Or, set up a wifi bridge, with e.g. a ubiquiti point-to-point link, with one end is close to your wifi camera (to pick up its weaker signal) and the other end at the house.
There are plenty of wifi wildlife cameras on ebay, which I understood use their own wifi hotspot to learn how to connect to a broader wifi network - same as the reolink, etc. when you first set them up. Lacking a broader wifi network they might offer their own as a fallback, so you can download while walking by. But I've not tried them, as they are quite expensive, and I have little faith their wifi signal would reach far enough (as per above) for our needs. I'm trying to build my own wildlife cameras now, using esp32cam modules and an external wifi antenna, just waiting on a few more parts :-)
17 January 2022 1:23am
Markusb very true but those camera are not truly wifi, they are a wifi /Bluetooth camera , meaning the create there own wifi network to down load the pics you have to connect to that network.
Now in saying that I have not experimented in writing a code using a programming language to be able to turn on and off wifi or Bluetooth and then turn it back off and tell the code to be able to do this ever two hours or so.
But using a small form factor pc that is connect to a ubiquiti or tplink long range wifi device this is possible to a Bluetooth / wifi trail camera
17 January 2022 2:27am
Ok, understand. Note, the bluetooth feature is very short range, just to configure the camera from your phone when standing nearby. Wifi will give you some longer range and greater bandwidth for image/video downloads. If it is only offering its own wifi network then that is sad, but unsurprising (they try to be very simple/cheap). Doesn't change my point though about the signal strength - if you are trying to get a really long distance (which is "over 100m" on most wifi cameras) then you will need to add something in between. A dedicated NUC/RPi/small-PC would be one option - but your reolink already has a simple PC built in, that offers the remote control and download features and storage to an SD card, etc. You can write your code to talk to that, from your home, using the reolink API/CGI (https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000625763-What-is-CGI-API). The small PC might still need to handle the "long-distance" wifi link if appropriate for your needs, in which case a ubiquiti/tplink wifi bridge (and a PC at home) might be more cost-effective? That can basically extend the camera's wifi back to your home.
This might need some whiteboarding and actual site-information to optimise :-)
Camera traps and community knowledge in Eastern India
20 December 2021 12:00am
Identification of Wildlife in Camera Trap Images
20 December 2021 12:00am
Feedback Needed: Wireless Camera Traps
4 October 2017 3:33am
16 November 2017 7:14pm
Just be aware of the limitations; you'll be transmitting at a very slow baud rate on frequencies that may have strict duty cycle (transmission time) and ERP (transmission power) limits. Check up on the rules for the region in which you intend to operate and make sure that the restrictions fit in with your intended application.
27 November 2017 5:03pm
The following two papers describe our attempst to develop an open source RPi camera trap platform with long range communications capability, and may be of interest:
Nazir, S., Fairhurst, G., Verdicchio, F., 2017. WiSE - a satellite-based system for remote monitoring. Int. J. Satell. Commun. Netw. 35, 201–214. https://doi.org/10.1002/sat.1176
Nazir, S., Newey, S., Irvine, R.J., Verdicchio, F., Davidson, P., Fairhurst, G., Wal, R. van der, 2017. WiseEye: Next Generation Expandable and Programmable Camera Trap Platform for Wildlife Research. PLoS One 12, e0169758. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169758
More details can be found here: https://erg.abdn.ac.uk/wise/
/Scott
7 December 2021 5:54pm
Vasudev
I have had no issues using ubiquiti device and pushing internet out to 5 miles line of site, what I am curious what are you using for you camera on the other end, I have always wanted to try and build a long distance wifi trail camera ( true wifi ).
is it solar powered or battery powered that has been my issue trying to figure out the power issue
Cellular and Lora camera traps
20 May 2021 10:51am
21 May 2021 8:36pm
Hi Antoine,
I am intrigued myself about how well a LoRa-based trail camera might work. I wonder if the 'LoRa' element is a more traditional radio connection? And of course the system still appears to rely on a cellular connection at the base station end. But interesting nonetheless.
On the radio side, there's also the CuddeLink model: https://www.cuddeback.com/cuddelink
However, I'd be sitting down when you look at the price.
I've had reasonable success with older model 3G cameras such as the Bolymedia MG983G-30M. From memory, it couldn't transfer video files larger than 10sec in length and it gets a bit glitchy if the batteries are running low. But, it worked well enough for me at the time.
If you do end up looking closer at the 'LoRa' model, please let us know how it works.
Cheers,
Rob
24 May 2021 4:09pm
Hi Antoine,
I had not seen these before, but I'll echo Rob in wondering if the radio links in these are truly what most would consider 'LoRa'. That tech/protocol generally has very low data transfer rates and would be quite challenged in sending pictures. That said, what they call it may not be relevant if it works for you. I would just be cautious of thinking it could integrate with other 'LoRa' devices or networks. Some other web sites that mention this system describe the radio link as 'proprietary'.
Kyler
7 December 2021 4:51pm
Antoineede they are a mesh style of camera, one links to the other and then send pictures back to the home unit where you either send them via cellular or you check the sd card. The cover Lora and cuddielink cameras do this but they play hell on battieries.
I had a cuddelink system and got rid of it , the home unit was to hook up to a pc and then from there you could easily wept a scrip to send to txt message or email etc but they scrapped that idea
Try our open-source automatic camera trap detection/labeling tool!
12 November 2021 8:31pm
1 December 2021 10:37am
This sounds so cool! I will try it out and spread the word.
6 December 2021 5:40pm
Wow, Zamba looks like a great tool. I'm curious about the terms of data use and privacy of the data uploaded to Zamba by users. I couldn't find that info on the website, could you point me in the right direction?
7 December 2021 3:55pm
Hi Morgan! We're currently still working out the exact terms. Are there any specific concerns that you had?
Low-cost underwater camera trapping and deep learning
30 November 2021 12:00am
Technical Difficulties: The Promise and Pitfalls of Machine Learning for Conservation
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Caiman: Images as Sources of Intelligence
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Technical Difficulties: Pangolin in a Haystack
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Opportunity: Wildlife Connectivity Technician (Seasonal)
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Technical Difficulties: Understanding the Realities
13 October 2021 12:00am
Technical Difficulties: A Deployment Checklist
13 October 2021 12:00am
5 June 2022 7:51pm
Wow, I'd not come across the Kilocam before. What a cool piece of kit! Not remotely helpful to your question sorry (I honestly don't know of a cheaper, better option anyway), but could be the basis of a very cheap, time-lapse camera-collar...