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
Bay Area Older Adults
California Naturalist with Felidae and CDFW
- 0 Resources
- 6 Discussions
- 3 Groups
- @pchwalek
- | He/him/his
I'm a PhD candidate in the Responsive Environments Group, working on electronic systems for human and wildlife monitoring.
- 0 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Founder & Director of Tech 4 Conservation
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 3 Groups
Allen Institute for AI
Communications for EarthRanger and Skylight
- 7 Resources
- 5 Discussions
- 10 Groups
- @diego_lizcano
- | He/Him
Wildlife biologist interested in biodiversity monitoring and the conservation of mammals. Passionate photographer.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
TerrOïko
PhD Student in statistical ecology
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 7 Groups
TerrOïko
I am an ecological data engineer at Terroïko, where I work on OCAPI, a platform for semi-automatic camtrap data annotation, biodiversity data interoperability and biodiversity indicators.
- 0 Resources
- 10 Discussions
- 6 Groups
TerrOïko
R&D Engineer
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
Asst. Prof @ MIT with research at the intersection of computer vision, biodiversity monitoring, conservation, and sustainability.
- 2 Resources
- 14 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @adanger24
- | She/Her
Arribada Initiative
Senior Project Manager and Field Specialist
- 2 Resources
- 10 Discussions
- 10 Groups
- @hjayanto
- | He/Him
Your friendly Indo-Crocky-Croc
- 0 Resources
- 29 Discussions
- 16 Groups
Wildlife manager. Specialized in mammals, new technologies and abundance estimation
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 5 Groups
Article
The internet has a long love affair with cat pictures, but these aren’t your mom’s internet cats. Now internet cats are getting even bigger and wilder. In this article, Dr. Lisa Feldkamp talks about the work Panthera is...
26 October 2016
Caves don't tend to be well-liked ecosystems, being extremely dark, often quite cramped, and slippery. And the creepy-crawlies that live within them can be the stuff of nightmares. Nevertheless, one's attitude towards...
25 July 2016
Sharing personal 'best of' animal pictures is a favorite pastime of many camera trappers. A prolific camera trapper himself, Roland Kays has pulled together more than 600 images collected by 152 researchers from 54...
18 July 2016
Can camera traps placed in trees offer a way to rapidly inventory secretive arboreal mammals? How does this approach compare with traditional survey techniques? Dr Andy Whitworth and his colleagues set out to answer...
4 July 2016
Operating the largest tropical forest camera trap network globally, TEAM Network has accumulated over 2.6 million images. How can large datasets coupled with new techniques for data management and analysis provide...
28 April 2016
Camera traps have revolutionised wildlife research and conservation, enabling scientists to collect photographic evidence of rarely seen and often globally endangered species, with low expense, relative ease, and...
20 April 2016
When Victoria Espinel, President and CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance, spoke at the WWF Fuller Symposium, she took us on a whistle-stop tour of case studies where software and data are transforming our understanding...
10 March 2016
From artificial “sniffer” technologies to portable DNA sequencers, the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge received hundreds of innovative ideas to help stamp out wildlife crime. Now, the Challenge is proud to announce 16...
22 January 2016
New technologies offer a lot of potential for conservation, but are there potential risks to deploying these new technologies? In this first thought piece for the Ethics of Conservation Tech Group, Dr Chris Sandbrook...
2 November 2015
May 2024
event
September 2024
October 2024
November 2023
event
35 Products
Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hi Adrián, Bracis et al. {recurse} package in R allow those time between visits comparisons. I had problems running the package with my data, though. |
|
Camera Traps | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Ah yes, these must have broken when we moved over to our new site. They should work now - thanks for flagging! |
+2
|
Camera Traps | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Indeed, I'll be there too! I like to meet new conservation friends with morning runs, so I will likely organize a couple of runs, maybe one right near the conference, and... |
|
Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps, Remote Sensing & GIS | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Hi everyone! The Fine Grained Visual Categorization Workshop (FGVC) is hosting its 10th rendition at CVPR this June in Vancouver. A huge... |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Marine Conservation | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Yes, but for our needs that are not powerful enough |
|
Acoustics, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Camera Traps, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Thank you so much for your reply! I'll look in to this now :) |
|
Acoustics, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS, Software and Mobile Apps | 1 year 1 month ago | |
The eVorta website is still VERY empty but will be worth keeping an eye out for for sure. At first, from the notes above, I thought that this was Edge AI but in the article linked... |
|
Camera Traps, Connectivity | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Hey there! Not sure what your funding constraints are but I have been using Reolink Go PT, which is solar powered. This model has been discontinued. However they have an upgraded... |
|
Camera Traps | 1 year 2 months ago | |
We have made available our underwater videos on YouTube as a playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnhVZKKy8WkZKriCIV6r7upWhHNVrU_7L It's about 1.113 short video... |
+2
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Marine Conservation | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Hi Steph, This should be a simple project. Recently I came across a website with a sample video I am not sure whether it was from the wild Labs website. Where a camera is... |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 1 year 2 months ago | |
@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... |
|
Camera Traps | 1 year 2 months ago | |
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... |
|
Camera Traps | 1 year 3 months ago |
Q&A: UK NERC £3.6m AI (image) for Biodiversity Funding Call - ask your questions here
13 September 2023 4:10pm
Camera Trap Data Management Survey: Results
20 September 2023 1:46am
Camera traps statistics
18 September 2023 10:22am
GBIF guide to managing and publishing camera trap data opens for community review
15 September 2023 2:23pm
A low-cost, long-running, open-source stereo camera for tracking aquatic species and their behaviours
5 September 2023 12:15pm
Have you ever wanted to continuously film underwater species and their behaviours for up to 2 days at a low cost?
Well now you can with this new open-source design guide published in
@MethodsEcolEvol!
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/2041-210X…
Camera traps reveal wildlifes' responses to megafires in Western U.S.
24 August 2023 10:47pm
An interesting new paper from a camera trap surveying species' responses and resilience to megafires in the western United States. A great example of how conservation tech can help us understand regional climate change impacts.
Online training workshop: camera trap distance sampling, 23-27 October 2023
21 August 2023 2:24am
Bushnell cameras with date-time issues.
29 July 2023 1:06am
11 August 2023 12:40pm
I think this is a known problem with some Bushnell models. The battery connection only needs to be interrupted for an instant (by being moved for example) and the camera resets. If a coin battery, are they still charged?
11 August 2023 1:19pm
I am having similar problems with a campark camera. It's more than 4 years old, so it could be the button cell. I am also suspecting that humidity plays a role : the re-set happened a couple of times after long rain periods ( half a day or so ). Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps some corrosion is going on.
11 August 2023 2:45pm
Thanks folks. Will go check and let you know what I learn.
Mike
Live Streaming from a Remote Location (no cell tower access)
15 July 2023 1:18am
29 July 2023 1:29am
"The WiFi Solar Camera comes loaded with various features such as live monitoring ( via smartphone app ), motion sensor recording and notification alerts on detected movement, night vision, cloud storage of footage, an audio system to facilitate communication"
29 July 2023 8:43am
Hi Colin, Many thanks for your replies. Yes, Starlink provides full internet access. Our current Wifi Nest camera contains a web server & provides a html code to embed the live stream into a web page for public access. Most security cameras, due to privacy reasons, do not stream to a web page without requiring a username & password. Not a viable solution for public viewing.
We are looking for a camera with PTZ functionality that can stream to a web page without requiring a username & password.
Cheers, Graeme
11 August 2023 12:27pm
Graeme, Maybe speak to a web IT expert. You may be able to have an interface on the webpage which provides the login credentials to the camera, but then passes the image (and control) to another page. Make a "masking" page that keeps the camera happy, but access and control is via another page.
Conservation Technology Specialist
11 August 2023 1:21am
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge: Judges' Panel Honorees
4 August 2023 10:00am
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge: Community Choice Honorees
3 August 2023 10:00am
360 Camera for Marine Monitoring
25 July 2023 8:54am
28 July 2023 7:43pm
Hi Sol,
For my research on fish, I had to put together a low-cost camera that could record video for several weeks. Here is the design I came up with
FishCam: A low-cost open source autonomous camera for aquatic research
We describe the “FishCam”, a low-cost (<500 USD) autonomous camera package to record videos and images underwater. The system is composed of easily ac…
At the time of the paper, I was able to record video for ~12 hours a day at 10 fps and for up to 14 days. With new SD cards now, it is pushed to 21 days. It costs about 600 USD if you build it yourself. If you don't want to make it yourself, there is a company selling it now, but it is much more expensive. The FOV is 110 degrees, so not the 360 that you need, but I think there are ways to make it work (e.g. with the servo motor).
Happy to chat if you decide to go this route and/or want to brainstorm ideas.
Cheers,
Xavier
3 August 2023 2:32am
Hi Xavier, this is fantastic! Thanks for sharing, the time frame is really impressive and really in line with what we're looking for. I'll send you a message.
Cheers,
Sol
3 August 2023 3:19am
I agree, this would be great for canopy work!
Workshop on the use of information and communications technology for conservation in Central Asia
1 August 2023 11:50pm
Live Streaming Camera
31 July 2023 11:36am
Seeking your support for stereo camera trap project
25 July 2023 5:22pm
Insect camera traps for phototactic insects and diurnal pollinating insects
20 March 2023 9:39am
25 May 2023 7:09am
OK, thanks!
10 July 2023 1:57pm
Hi @abra_ash , @MaximilianPink, @Sarita , @Lars_Holst_Hansen.
I'm looking to train a very compact (TinyML) model for flying pollinator detection on a static background. I hope a network small enough for microcontroller hardware will prove useful for measuring plant-pollinator interactions in the field.
Presently, I'm gathering a dataset for training using a basic motion-triggered video-capture program on a raspberry pi. This forms a very crude insect camera trap.
I'm wondering if anyone has any insights on how I might attract pollinators into my camera field of view? I've done some very elementary reading on bee optical vision and currently trying the following:
Purple and yellow artifical flowers are placed on a green background, the center of the flowers are lightly painted with a UV (365nm) coat.
A sugar paste is added to each flower.
The system is deployed in an inner-city garden (outside my flat), and I regularly see bees attending the flowers nearby.
Here's a picture of the field of view:
Does anyone have ideas for how I might maximise insect attraction? I'm particularly interested in what @abra_ash and @tom_august might have to say - are optical methods enough or do we need to add pheremone lures?
Thanks in advance!
Best,
Ross
20 July 2023 4:40pm
Hi Ross,
Where exactly did you put the UV paint? Was it on the petals or the actual middle of the flowers?
I would recommend switching from sugar paste to sugar water and maybe put a little hole in the centre for a nectary. Adding scent would make the flowers more attractive but trying to attract bees is difficult since they very obviously prefer real flowers to artificial ones. I would recommend getting the essential oil Linalool since it is a component of scented nectar and adding a small amount of it to the sugar water. Please let us know if the changes make any difference!
Kind Regards,
Abra
Senior Technical Specialist, Monitoring & Technology, ZSL
18 July 2023 1:44pm
Wildlife Conservation Drones & Technologies Summit 2023
16 July 2023 10:04pm
Pinniped Time-lapse Camera Surveys in the Southern Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Shore 2019-2022
13 July 2023 2:46pm
Tools for automating image analysis for biodiversity monitoring
12 July 2023 4:50pm
Project Spotlight: Monitoring tropical freshwater fish in Kakadu National Park with drones, underwater cameras and AI
12 July 2023 3:40pm
12 July 2023 3:58pm
During Andrew's talk, @dmorris put out a call in the chat that might be relevant to folks catching up on the video, so I'll drop it here too:
Re: Andrew's fish work... part of the reason I got in touch with Andrew a few weeks ago is that I'm trying to keep track of public datasets and public models for marine video that have basically this gestalt (video where fish look fishy-ish). I think we're getting close to enough public data to train a general-purpose model that will work well across ecosystems. My running list of datasets is here:
https://lila.science/otherdatasets#images-marine-fish
Let me know if folks know of others!
There are also a grand total of two public models that I'm aware of that sort of fall into this category... one is Andrew's:
https://github.com/ajansenn/KakaduFishAI
The other is:
https://github.com/warplab/megafishdetector
If folks know of other publicly-available models, let me know about those too!
2023 Canon Oceania Grants - Environmental Grant AU$5,000
7 July 2023 1:47pm
What does "EK" stand for (as in "100EK113")?
4 July 2023 7:00pm
5 July 2023 12:14am
Most trailcam manufacturers use OEM camera designs from factories that cater to many different applications and companies. Most likely, Bushnell didn't design the camera circuitry and write the software, hence what you're seeing is the vanilla software from the reference design created by the image processor manufacturer used by the camera. My guess is the EK stands for "Evaluation Kit" and the design firm that designed the circuitry for the Bushnell trailcam didn't change the software for the file naming.
5 July 2023 3:58am
I like your hypothesis. I'm going with that until someone demonstrates otherwise. It's less fun than finding out that Elsa Kramer's birthday was January 13th (or November 3rd?), but it seems plausible. Reconyx went the extra 0.00001 miles, I guess, to change one string in the code.
New Add-ons for Mbaza AI
4 July 2023 12:00pm
Camera Trap Data Normalization Help
31 May 2023 2:45pm
16 June 2023 5:36pm
Hi Michelle,
it would be good to get some more information on your project. What question are you trying to answer? How many cameras did you have deployed? How many different study sites/haul-out areas are there?
16 June 2023 6:35pm
Absolutely, I am happy to provide it. Our objectives are 1) to improve the understanding of local and seasonal haul-out patterns, and the numbers of seals hauled out during daylight hours; 2) to investigate any haul-out patterns in relation to environmental factors.
We had 10 different cameras set up at two different survey areas (8 at one location and 2 at another). We are studying the two survey areas separately. At one of the locations there are 8 different survey sites within the area where seals haul-out, at the other location, there are 2 different survey sites within the area.
So far we have completed 3 survey seasons as well.
Let me know if there is anything else I can provide!
27 June 2023 6:03pm
Also, for more help, here is the link to the website where an old report is shown. Navy Marine Species Monitoring :: Time-lapse Camera Surveys of Pinnipeds in Southeastern Virginia
New collaboration network - Computer vision for insects
26 June 2023 2:36pm
Overview: Depth Sensing Technologies for Camera Traps
9 November 2021 3:06pm
22 February 2022 2:24pm
For the more computationally-inclined, the Project Zamba software can also be used as a python package and the project codebase is fully available on GitHub.
22 February 2022 2:24pm
@hikinghack @Nycticebus-scientia We just ran an open-source competition on this exact question! DrivenData is a small group of data scientists, and we partnered with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) and the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) to compile enough hand-labeled data to apply machine learning to the depth problem. In your original post, this falls under the AI Prediction Based category. The code behind all of the top-performing models is freely available on GitHub. We're hoping to make these freely available in the future in the a more user-friendly way.
@JHughes to your point about motion sensor camera traps being continuously set off -our free, open-source web application called Zamba Cloud uses machine learning to automatically sort videos by either what animal they contain or whether they are blank. You just upload a set of videos, and the web application will output a list of labels for each video! This may not address the battery drainage problem, but can help with filtering out blank videos and identifying which actually captured animals.
25 June 2023 10:33pm
(apologies for joining this thread late) Has anyone tried using the LIDAR in one of the newer iPhones so-equipped as a trail cam trigger? (e.g. iPhone12 Pro), perhaps in conjunction with a nueral network that processes the depth map looking for animal triggers? (I know this is liable to be a power-hungry trigger, for now, just looking at a proof of concept)
Osa Conservation: A Multi-Tech Toolbox of Solutions
22 June 2023 10:42am
The Wildlife Society Conference
19 June 2023 5:59am
21 September 2023 4:27pm
This is super cool! Me and @Hubertszcz and @briannajohns and several others are all working towards some big biodiversity monitoring projects for a large conservation project here in panama. The conservation project is happening already, but hubert starts on the ground work in January and im working on a V3 of our open source automated insect monitoring box to have ready for him by then.
I guess my main question would be if this funding call is appropriate/interested for this type of project? and what types of assistance are possible through this type of funding (researchers? design time? materials? laboratory field construction)