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
- @Riley
- | she/they
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
- | he / him
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
- | volkan
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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- @dombroski.julia
- | she/he/hers
- 0 Resources
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World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
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- @cleo
- | She/Her
Southern African Wildlife College
I am ecologist working in African conservation areas who loves wildlife & wild landscapes. I increasingly recognize that conservation is about people, especially those living in & around protected areas. Finding ways to benefit marginalized people is my passion.
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Five articles that include conservation tech published at Mongabay
20 October 2022
*New closing date!* WILDLABS and Fauna & Flora International are seeking an early career conservationist for 12-month paid internship position to grow and support the Southeast Asia regional community in our global...
19 October 2022
The device could help scientists explore unknown regions of the ocean, track pollution, or monitor the effects of climate change.
26 September 2022
Careers
The Senior Conservation Technology Specialist will be responsible for providing technical advice and capacity development to GWP project teams on conservation technology, distilling challenges and lessons from project...
22 September 2022
The European Biodiversity Partnership Biodiversa+, co-funded by the European Union, has launched a call for research proposals on “Improved transnational monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change for science and...
14 September 2022
At the Inria Sophia Antipolis - Méditerranée center. The project will pursue two different methodological goals: (1) explore the use of natural language bottlenecks describing visible traits or other visual...
1 September 2022
Boost cons tech capacity at an international NGO! Fauna & Flora International is offering a paid three-month internship to consolidate and share best practices for the application of emerging hardware and software...
26 August 2022
The Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies (WFE), SLU, Umeå, is looking for a postdoc with strong interests in wildlife conservation technology.
26 August 2022
Careers
Job opening at ARISE, an innovative program in the Netherlands to build a digital infrastructure for biodiversity data and services
19 August 2022
Are you creative, love new challenges and have experience developing software? The Wildlife Insights team is hiring! Join a diverse team of ecologists, data scientists, engineers and machine learning experts to protect...
10 August 2022
Press Release for International Tiger Day – July 29th, 2022: For the first time ever, wild tigers and their prey have been detected by AI-powered, cryptic cameras that transmit the images to the cell phones and...
5 August 2022
Careers
WCS Canada is seeking a Data Technician with a keen eye for detail to support its Wolverine Conservation Program. The Data Technician will be responsible for classifying wildlife photos taken with motion-sensor cameras...
29 July 2022
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Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Thank you for elaborating, @evebohnett ! And for the heads ups! |
+22
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Camera Traps, Drones | 2 weeks ago | |
[oops, the same reply got submitted twice and there doesn't seem to be a "delete" button] |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 3 weeks 6 days ago | |
Hi @zhongqimiao ,Might you have faced such an issue while using mega detectorThe conflict is caused by:pytorchwildlife 1.0.2.13 depends on torch==1.10.1pytorchwildlife 1.0.2.12... |
+6
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Open Source Solutions | 3 weeks 6 days ago | |
Thanks, and that's a match! All these pictures are from a lab experiment and formated with AmphIdent. We took weekly belly pictures of several larvae. The aim of this google... |
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Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Software and Mobile Apps | 4 weeks ago | |
Hi, this is pretty interesting to me. I plan to fly a drone over wild areas and look for invasive species incursions. So feral hogs are especially bad, but in the Everglades there... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Open Source Solutions, Software and Mobile Apps | 4 weeks 1 day ago | |
Hi everyone!@LashaO and @holmbergius from the Wild Me team at ConservationX Labs gave a superb talk at last month's Variety Hour,... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 1 month ago | |
Can't beat Dan's list! I would just add that if you're interested in broader protected area management, platforms like EarthRanger and SMART are amazing, and can integrate... |
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Data management and processing tools, Camera Traps, Conservation Tech Training and Education | 1 month ago | |
Saul Greenberg is a great guy! He has made a few very useful videos regarding the Timelapse/Megadetector integration:https://grouplab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/grouplab/uploads/... |
+14
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Camera Traps | 1 month ago | |
EcoAssist is an application designed to streamline the work of ecologists dealing with camera trap images. It’s an AI platform that... |
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Software and Mobile Apps, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
Hi @Alasdair Great to hear from you! Thanks for the comment and for those very useful links (very interesting). And for letting @Rob_Appleby know. I can't wait to hear... |
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Emerging Tech, Camera Traps, Conservation Tech Training and Education | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
Hello everyone, I'm interested in gathering insights on how the behavior of different species impacts the development and efficacy of... |
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Biologging, Acoustics, Camera Traps, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Marine Conservation | 1 month 4 weeks ago | |
Hi Andrew! Great to hear your friend, Scott working in Indonesia! I bet he is working on east region with lot of cool monitor lizards!I use Mavic 2 as well for my crocodile... |
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Camera Traps | 2 months 3 weeks ago |
MIT engineers build a battery-free, wireless underwater camera
26 September 2022 2:59pm
Avian nest box monitoring
14 September 2022 2:30pm
23 September 2022 12:34pm
I'd be interested in any camera monitoring setups that can be used inside a nest box. Most camera traps are too bulky for this purpose. All the devices I've looked at either need a wired connection or a wifi network to transmit images. I want one that can store all info to an SD card and preferably be solar powered. Obviously infrared or starlight sensitivity. Sound recording would be a bonus for some bird monitoring I want to do.
23 September 2022 1:16pm
Done lots of this over the years and it depends on the species really. If you want incubation behaviour and hence success or otherwise using temperature then the Thermocron IButton DS1921G is perfect. The new Blue Maestro is an option I became aware of this year but I haven't tested at scale.
In terms of cameras and endoscopes I've tailored many off the shelf products and built a few from scratch. When I get chance I'll have a look around and see what is still available.
Counting insect density automatically with Intel RealSense D455?
31 August 2022 3:54pm
23 September 2022 12:06pm
Might be good to add this to the 'Automated Camera Traps for Insects' group
Senior Conservation Technology Expert Position (Consultancy) with the Global Wildlife Program
22 September 2022 5:35pm
New paper: Environmental DNA as a management tool for tracking artificial waterhole use in savanna ecosystems
19 September 2022 2:43pm
From Max Farrell on Twitter: "New paper comparing eDNA and camera traps for tracking waterhole visitation. We took pictures, analyzed DNA in drinking water, built a reference library for vertebrates in the Kruger, and asked how well these tools work (and why!)"
CamTrap Ecology meets AI conference
14 September 2022 4:47pm
CFP - transnational biodiversity monitoring (from European Biodiversity Partnership)
14 September 2022 1:42pm
Postdoc: Interpretable ML for species-based image classification
1 September 2022 9:34pm
River Otter Camera Traps
21 August 2022 10:02pm
27 August 2022 2:00am
I am a Camera Trapper hobbyist. I have gotten some nice otter videos. You can see them on my you tube channel pheekin trail camera videos. There is nothing on the channel but 15 second videos of animals that I have filmed. I have several otter videos on the channel that I think are pretty good. I found a spot where beaver, mink, and otters were moving between a medium size river and a man made wetland. I set my cameras on the trails. The secret was getting the camera really low on the trees near the trails. If you look at the otter videos the camera is pointed toward the river, just offset of the trail. When placed at 90 degrees to the trail the otters moved too fast for a good video. When offset but looking toward the river, the otters see the camera but most animals still proceeded down the trail toward the wetland. It helped that the river bank was steep and when they got to the top they triggered the camera at the same time they saw the camera. The camera was a true dark flash so they see the camera has and object but do not see the flash. One warning when cameras are set low on a tree the camera really has to be locked in tight. Raccoon and coyote will investigate the camera and some will knock it. Coyotes knocked out of position three of the 4 cameras that I set. Thankfully I got the otters before they knocked the cameras. Hope this helps
28 August 2022 6:15pm
I will take a look and reach out if I have any questions. Thank you so much!
28 August 2022 6:15pm
Good information, Thank you!
Conservation Technology Research Internship
26 August 2022 4:58pm
Postdoc in the application of AI for wildlife conservation & management
26 August 2022 11:47am
Download files through wifi/BT ?
25 August 2022 2:27pm
26 August 2022 1:05am
Wifi SD cards exist
Never tried them personally though. Came across them when looking for ways to make a 3d printer wireless.
Lead Software Engineer for ARISE
19 August 2022 8:22am
Online workshop: analysis of camera trap data with distance sampling
18 August 2022 2:03pm
21 August 2022 7:23am
12 September 2022 6:21pm
Lead Software Engineer, Wildlife Insights
10 August 2022 11:06pm
Building a simple AI-powered, human-in-the-loop system to manage wildlife camera trap images & annotations
10 August 2022 8:12pm
Hi folks! I built out a human-in-the-loop annotation platform for Felidae Conservation Fund, a SF-Bay Area nonprofit last Fall using MegaDetector. I'm looking for feedback from this amazing community around areas of collaboration, especially data/software resources we can share!
Dealing with Cows whilst camera trapping
5 August 2022 11:17am
9 August 2022 12:02am
Hi David,
Harold is correct. Cattle do like to use anything to scratch against. They are also pretty inquisitive.
Cattle don't like shadows or flowing rubbish/ material. So attach a flag post near the camera or build a cage around it. Yet with a cage, cattle will most likely rub up against it.
Never ending cycle of the scratching vs what you don't want moved
9 August 2022 3:22pm
I like the idea of supplying them with a scratching post solution, I will look into that. Thorns/gorse is also a great idea.
Thanks very much for the suggestions! I will let you know what works!
9 August 2022 3:24pm
Hi Kim,
Thanks for the response. I think they can hear our cameras clicking when they are set off and they come to see what is happening so I would totally agree with the inquisitive cows!
I will try the flag idea as building cages is just not going to be practical with soil depth.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Cheers
Dave
Can deep learning identify seabirds? (species, within-species, individual)
25 May 2022 8:24pm
21 June 2022 4:55pm
Update: I asked the same question on twitter so I'm sharing answers I got there:
With quality photos and good labeled training data, I would say definitely doable! @ultralytics and their #YOLOv5 models would be a cool place to start!
— Abram B. Fleishman (@abfleishman) May 26, 2022
Let's chat! We've been training models to run on trail cameras as images/videos are captured, and have worked on migratory birds along coastlines (more info: https://t.co/NzW4GO2Wqp)
— Henrik Cox (@henrik_cox) June 1, 2022
Have a look at this paper:https://t.co/pmvrmvJAuS
— Damien R. Farine (@DamienFarine) May 27, 2022
Individual identification needs tens of pictures per individual of known individuals as training data, which will be the challenge here.
Absolutely feasible, to learn how to train a CNN to identify species from satellite images I did a few tutorials on ID species from photographs. With the right training dataset it should be fairly straightforward. For individuals? Easier on species with clear markers (fins).
— Samanta's Wildlife (@SamantaWildlife) May 27, 2022
21 June 2022 5:41pm
Hi Yvan,
I dropped this into the AI for Conservation slack group as well, you got this reply this morning:
Steph
8 August 2022 11:12am
Hi Yvan,
If you find something which reaches your expectation and especially the ability to identify individual with plumage patterns I will be intereted.
In the same idea that Ultralytics, there is :
Which could probably answer your first and second requirements.
And find here a great website showing all the IA-based camera software, you may find solutions or contact throw this list:
Tiger, Tiger, in the Night... Now Visible in Real Time
5 August 2022 4:07pm
Hardware Advice Needed: Cameras for seabird' nests
12 September 2018 1:16pm
25 October 2018 10:56am
Great to hear, thanks for the update Laura. I'd be curious to hear what the team decides to go with, would you be able to report back what they end up doing?
25 October 2018 1:44pm
Yes of course! I will let you know as soon as they tell me something :)
3 August 2022 6:55am
I'm interested in your findings for the same utilization, so what did you decide to do ?
Identify animal from Image
2 August 2022 1:37am
2 August 2022 2:54am
Hi Jitendra.
If they are still images, many people are using Megadetector to analyze their images. I'm not sure how it will do in species classification, but it can tell you if there are images of interest in the shots. Others here can probably give you more detailed instructions on how to use it to batch process camera trap images.
2 August 2022 10:24am
Have you considered creating a Kaggle competition? If you already have lots of images, and some that have been labelled, then this could be a good way to get people working on a solution
Wolverine Data Technician
29 July 2022 1:59pm
Snapshot Europe 2022 sign-up is open!
20 July 2022 6:17pm
Opportunity: Postdocs on mammal species distributions
11 July 2022 8:46pm
Camera Trap Image analyzer
2 June 2022 10:41am
17 June 2022 3:58pm
Hi Ann,
The best thing to do is contact Nic and Hannes directly:
https://wildeyeconservation.org/contact-us/
They can provide you with an overview of the software and answer any questions you have. I've heard good things from a couple of others who have tried out TrapTagger.
Best,
Matt
2 July 2022 9:48am
Hello Matt,
Many thanks for your recommendation . I contacted Nic and we have planned a session where he will take me through the software.
Regards,
Ann
2 July 2022 2:39pm
Hi Kate,
I highly appreciate your feedback. I love your idea of using wild ID .I have registered for the wild ID and am looking forward to using it in future. I wont hesitate to contact you incase of any inquiries.
Many thanks,
Regards,
Ann
Time-lapse camera trap recomendations
19 April 2022 10:42am
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...
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
9 June 2022 12:20pm
14 September 2022 3:08pm
Maybe this is a starting point. Any idea if this product would work inside the box. Kestrel DROP D3 Wireless Temperature, Humidity & Pressure Data Logger https://amzn.eu/d/5VdQwtA