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
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
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Environmentalist and Python developer working in the realm of Remote Sensing. Fascinated by the intersection of technology and nature, with a focus on machine learning, ecological modeling, and biodiversity monitoring. 🌍
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Freaklabs
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Creative director and artist in love with nature and the use of technology for wildlife conservation.
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Addax Data Science
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Fauna & Flora
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Systems Engineer at Edge Impulse, experiencce with hands-on edge machine learning for wildlife conservation
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WILDLABS
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Underwater Fish Datasets from the Mediterranean
15 August 2022 11:45pm
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
Apply Now: AI for Conservation Office Hours
18 January 2023 5:15pm
BoomBox camera trap models?
1 June 2022 6:46pm
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
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
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?