With experts across the WILDLABS community working with every type of technology and in every imaginable environment, our platform is a great place to find advice and resources on choosing what tools are right for your conservation project. Whether you're in the market to try a new camera trap model, want to experiment with drones for the first time, or need help weighing the pros and cons of data management tools, there's someone in the WILDLABS community who can help you make a smart and informed choice!
The Community Base is our general gathering group. It's the place where we cover more general, big picture topics in conservation technology - ones that don't fit neatly into our other groups. If you don't know where to post something, just post it in this group. Our moderators will move it if needed!
At our Community Base, you'll find updates from the WILDLABS team on upcoming events and opportunities, and have the chance to shape our programs and platform with your opinions. And most importantly, the Community Base is also home to our Welcome to WILDLABS thread, the best place to introduce yourself to us and the community. Stop by and tell us what you're working on!
Whether you're new to WILDLABS and want to know where to begin, or you're a longtime member looking for a handy bank of resources, our Getting Started on WILDLABS thread will be your one-stop guide to getting the most out of our platform.
Want to find out more about WILDLABS? Check out our recent community call:
Header image: Ana Verahrami/Elephant Listening Project
Group curators
- @StephODonnell
- | She / Her
WILDLABS & Fauna & Flora
I'm the Executive Manager at WILDLABS.
- 152 Resources
- 665 Discussions
- 30 Groups
- @TaliaSpeaker
- | She/her
WILDLABS & World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
I'm the WILDLABS Research Specialist at WWF-US
- 13 Resources
- 56 Discussions
- 24 Groups
- @EllieW
- | She/Her
- 64 Resources
- 124 Discussions
- 14 Groups
Neuroscientist & engineer transitioning to conservation tech. I have experience working with large imaging datasets, pose estimation and positional tracking, and machine learning. Looking to get involved with GIS, remote sensing, and AI for conservation.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 17 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 16 Groups
- @bioNathan
- | he/him
Innovation Design Engineer studying at MSc + MA level. Previously a Robotics engineer with specialisms in remote sensing, control systems & electronics design. Transitioning to ecological contexts. I use bioinspiration to inform tech design, both product & infrastructure.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 8 Groups
Tech 4 Conservation
President, Tech 4 Conservation
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- 6 Discussions
- 18 Groups
- @kalado
- | Kalado
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- 0 Discussions
- 8 Groups
Botswana Predator Conservation Trust
- 0 Resources
- 72 Discussions
- 10 Groups
- @Jkavutha
- | Her/She
I am currently pursuing an MSc Conservation Biology at the University of Kent. My research interests are based around wildlife economies and how communities can be at the frontline to drive initiatives that promote sustainable livelihoods and safeguard wildlife habitats.
- 1 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @Seagoose
- | she/her
Ecologist & Conservationist. Women for the Environment, Africa Fellow. National Geographic Explorer.
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- 4 Discussions
- 8 Groups
Key Conservation
- 1 Resources
- 19 Discussions
- 6 Groups
Wildlife conservationist
- 0 Resources
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- 11 Groups
Data has been my passion and i enjoy working with data while bringing value to the business. Data engineer with 7+ years of experience Eager to support with expert analytical skills to advance the companys business operations and strategic initiative.
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- 9 Groups
Adventure Scientists is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Bozeman, MT that equips scientists and researchers with high-quality data collected from the outdoors that are crucial to addressing environmental challenges around the world.
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- 16 Groups
To celebrate the start of our 2023 #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge on July 24th, we’re jumping back in time this week to relive past challenges and see how far we’ve come in conservation tech.
18 July 2023
Article
To celebrate the start of our 2023 #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge on July 24th, we’re jumping back in time this week to relive past challenges and see how far we’ve come in conservation tech.
17 July 2023
We are a team of ecologists and technologists who believe good business must be good for nature. We’re building an economy that puts nature and business in balance by incentivising the restoration of nature at scale.
7 July 2023
Applications are now open till 23 July for the 2023 Canon Oceania Grants with the category of the Environmental Grant valued at AU$5,000. The finalist will be selected based on the environmental and social merits of...
7 July 2023
Join our annual #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge from July 24-28 to share your best photos and videos with conservation tech users, makers, and supporters from around the world.
7 July 2023
In this article from Fran Baker, Fiona Riggall, and Ed Miller, you'll learn how tech companies like Arm can incorporate sustainability into their mindset for longterm success.
5 July 2023
Article
Say hello to the WILDLABS community on Instagram and help us highlight conservation tech work happening around the world!
1 July 2023
CBE is recruiting a full-time Senior Wind Engineering Manager to drive the development and implementation of their existing and future wind portfolio.
27 June 2023
The GSMA ClimateTech programme
21 June 2023
In this article from Jacinta Plucinski & Akiba of Freaklabs, they share advice on organising your thoughts around building short-term and long-term sustainability considerations into your conservation technology...
21 June 2023
Careers
Come work with us! WILDLABS and Fauna & Flora are seeking a Project Manager to join our team and help deliver projects under our cross-sector funding and events programmes. Accepting applications until Sunday, 9...
16 June 2023
Come work with us! WILDLABS and Fauna & Flora are seeking an intern to help develop the movement ecology content on the Inventory - our wiki-inspired database of conservation technology. Accepting applications until...
6 June 2023
June 2024
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Eugh me too! Ellie's been working with him to see if we might have him blog here as well.. *FINGERS CROSSED*! |
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Community Base | 1 year 8 months ago | |
Thanks Carly! I'll pop this on the list of features to discuss with developers. Putting broader regions on the existing list might be possible. It could also be useful to get more... |
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Community Base | 1 year 8 months ago | |
I have been waiting for journal club to come back!! 10000% down.I agree with @StephODonnell, would love it to come back!!! And now that variety hour is happening, that's more of... |
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Acoustics, Community Base | 1 year 8 months ago | |
Hello. I am a PhD candidate at Penn State University. I submitted a post to this group back in March and I am resubmitting... |
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Community Base, Data management and processing tools, Remote Sensing & GIS, Wildlife Crime | 1 year 8 months ago | |
Any results coming out of this survey that you would like to share? |
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Community Base, Emerging Tech | 1 year 9 months ago | |
During a volunteer project, I ran into some stupefying experiences with camera traps, one of those 'corner stones', it seems, of nature conservation research. Everybody who... |
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Community Base | 1 year 9 months ago | |
Hi all!Last week we introduced you to our first WILDBEAR Awardee, Alyssa Bohart. We hope you enjoyed learning more about Alyssa's work with... |
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Biologging, Community Base | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Hi all doing some spring cleaning. Just pay shipping.I have: -20 new Taoglas FXUB63 Ultra Wide Band Antenna 698-3000MHz we don't need. ... |
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Community Base | 1 year 10 months ago | |
100%! Also heard many asking about SMART Connect & Mobile, and their integration with other software.Thank you for your input :) |
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Community Base, East Africa Community | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Thanks Akiba, hope you liked the series and found it helpful! Can't wait to see what you share! If you ever need someone to help brainstorm ideas on how to approach specific... |
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Community Base | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Quick report on what we're doing on the technical side:First of all, so sorry that this has happened. We worked hard on spam prevention on the registration system and after lots... |
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Community Base | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Hi wildlabbers! Every second friday, we host a work out loud space here in the community. We host it the day our digest hits... |
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Community Base | 1 year 10 months ago |
Friday check in - what have you been working on this week?
17 June 2022 9:17am
17 June 2022 12:30pm
This has been a really exciting week for me! A lot of cool stuff happening in the WILDLABS East Africa Community. Well, first of all we launched the community and I am happy to see all the interactions happening there. If you are based in East Africa- have you joined the Community? If not, then, head on over here; introduce yourself, take time to explore the resources we have and engage in the discussions- I am looking forward to your inputs on ongoing discussions e,g:
- If you are using EarthRanger, I'd love to hear all about your interactions with the tool here.
- What are some of the Conservation Technology gaps in East Africa? Share your insights here.
Then, I also had a hand in reporting on the first workshop of our Inaugural Women in Conservation Technology Programme; this was a great reminisce of the week we had with the cohort and I'm really excited for what lies ahead and to also witness the impacts of capacity building and mentorship on emerging conservation leaders. If you haven't already, you can catch up with all the updates in this article, and in our socials (Twitter and LinkedIn), as Steph has mentioned.
Aside from that, I came across a couple of interesting projects and work, that we will definitely highlight in the community. It was a great week and I'm looking forward to continue on with learning, interacting, exploring and highlighting more on conservation technology!
Netty.
17 June 2022 12:43pm
ha, I totally didn't expect you to jump into this thread Netty but I'm here for it! Your twitter takeover this week has been super fun to watch, definitely one of my highlights :)
Silverstrand Capital Biodiversity Accelerator+
17 June 2022 11:03am
Pratt & Whitney Global E-STEM Awards
14 June 2022 3:39pm
Looking for examples of cities using digital sustainability tools
22 April 2022 4:39pm
22 April 2022 8:11pm
I't note sure this meets your needs, but you may find this method of interest:
From PLOS ONE: https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249715
8 June 2022 1:13pm
Hi Courtney,
Over on Twitter your question has had a useful reply from CodeforPDX:
Steph
Science Director, Vulcan
4 June 2022 10:50am
Lacuna Fund: Datasets for Climate Applications grant open
3 June 2022 8:33pm
NICFI Satellite Data Program & GEO Indigenous Alliance: Indigenous outreach
2 June 2022 8:41am
Passive Acoustic Monitoring - Malagasy Training Workshop
9 May 2022 4:10pm
WILDLABS 2.0: Introducing Our New Platform
6 May 2022 11:40am
Getting Started in the WILDLABS Community
6 May 2022 12:00am
Apply to the 2022 GOSH Gathering in Panamá!
29 March 2022 9:46pm
26 April 2022 11:01am
There are only a few days left to apply to the 2022 Gathering for Open Science Hardware! Join a community of scientists, hardware developers, artists, and activists working together on open hardware for science!
Black Mammalogists Week - Get Involved!
14 April 2022 11:50pm
15 April 2022 7:35pm
Hi all! My name is Gabi Fleury and I'm part of the Black Mammalogists Week organizing committee and will be collaborating with WILDLABS on setting up this May 3rd Hackathon.
Really excited to have people involved in this event and am available to ask any questions here on the forum, or through a DM on Twitter at @fleurygs or through my email [email protected]. The Google Form is a great place to start to get you signed up and interacting on our Slack platform and forming teams, so please do fill it out if interested!
As was mentioned, we also would love to start gathering subject area experts, so if you're an expert in tech and you'd like to volunteer your expertise to advise this event's participants, please do drop me a line!
Technical Difficulties Community Discussion
13 October 2021 6:35pm
20 January 2022 1:55am
Thanks Jared,
That is useful information. I can see that it might be temperature differential condensation causing the problem as the board is on the end of the housing (in the cap). I'll try coating the exposed, non-moving parts of the board. The card contacts and the microphone will still need to be uncoated though.
The draining case was one option I considered but there is no guarentee that the case orientation will remain suitable.
20 January 2022 2:03am
I had considered a heat shrink case but the heat shrink I tried was insufficiently abrasion resistant for a koala. Maybe I should have tried using this with a resin coating or a layer of Teflon tape.
The PLA is remarkably abrasion resistant.
8 April 2022 3:21am
An update on my audio cases.
I tried changing a few things.
1. Changed battery brand and thus the age of the batteries I was being supplied. The Tadiran cells being supplied to me were made in 2014! Now in theory that should not matter with these cells. They have extreme shelf lives. But I ordered some Chinese Fanso cells and these were made just last year.
2. I have started using teflon adhesive tape to cover the audio 'vent' and around the neck side of the casing to increase the slip of the case and help keep the collar the right way up (GPS up, audio device down). The teflon tape does not have much pliability so I'm limited to the surfaces it can be fitted to. It does not stick to itself so I can't even wrap it in multiple layers but it does bond to PLA and the reflective tape. The teflon tape is more puncture resistant and it is naturally water dispersing. It does have different audio qualities though with a bit of a drum like reverb.
I have just retrieved a collar deployed 10 weeks ago using these two modifications. During this period the device has been exposed to 920 mm of rainfall, more than the average annual rainfall of the study site and the highest monthly total ever recorded in this part of Australia, so if the case was ever going to leak, this was going to do it! There is no evidence of water incursion in the case. There is no corrosion on the board or the battery and the recording device worked.
Of course the Russian assembled audio devices are currently off limits to me so I'm limited to the stock I currently have. If anyone is aware of an alternative board that I might use, I would love to hear about it. My requirements are: low power requirement (<2 mA), capacity to store 256 gb, small size (these ones are thumbnail sized), ability to record low frequencies (at least as low as 20 Hz). The µMoth is about four times the size and uses at least three times as much power. I have no need for the kind of processing power that the µMoth offers. I have found some chinese voice recorders that offer reasonably low power drain and small size but they have some kind of low frequency (high pass) filters built in which makes them of limited use for my project. If anyone has some suggestions I would love to hear them.
Opportunity: Executive Manager, Conservation Leadership Programme
7 April 2022 12:00am
Friday check in - what have you been working on this week?
11 March 2022 12:59pm
25 March 2022 2:37pm
Hi Stef (and others), I've been using old Natural resource maps from the 1970's to look at the habitats and resources that are identified within protected areas, most of which we haven't been able to survey in the future to help in a management planning workshop so that we can better understand what assessments need to be done in these areas for effective management of the resources.
some of the data isn't digitized as yet,
25 March 2022 4:12pm
Heya @LindyClydeKnowles - so nice to see you! This is super interesting, thanks for sharing :)
Some cool stuff happening over on twitter too:
Got back from deploying some AudioMoths & Swifts in SE Madagascar! Passive acoustic monitoring for lemurs. Also found out I got accepted to the @cv4ecology summer school! pic.twitter.com/qIlVE3hsqg
— Carly Batist (@Carly_Batist) March 12, 2022
Heard that I’ve been awarded £5k for acoustic recorder purchase!
— Carlos Abrahams (@abr_eco) March 11, 2022
Been reviewing data from some recorders I put out in vineyards last year. Some fun stuff going on! pic.twitter.com/OM7NOM3v7k
— David Savage (@david_t_savage) March 11, 2022
@LiamSeaDickson I bet you did something exciting this week
— Stuart Negus (@Stu_707) March 11, 2022
I had the opportunity to present my research using #drones4good to MPs at the Houses of Parliament, and talk about the importance of conserving our marine environment!
I was a finalist in the #STEMforBRITAIN competition - it was an incredible experience! pic.twitter.com/W8cdW3IqCg
— Liam C Dickson (@LiamSeaDickson) March 11, 2022
25 March 2022 4:21pm
Hello!
I have been watching GPS collars carefully as their are nearing their time of drop-off. We are testing burst fixes on these last few weeks of their 2.5 year deployment. So I am keeping a close eye on the battery levels so they will not die before beeing dropped off.
Also, I have been cooperating with Tobias from the Firetail acceleration and tracking visualization software to get support of ACC data from our Vectronic Vertex Plus collars.
Finally I have testing IP security cameras to see if they could be suitable to monitor our arctic fox dens in Greenland.
GOSH Regional Events Funding - Second Round Now Open!
14 March 2022 11:00am
WILDLABS Journal Club: Global Priority Mapping, AI for Good, and Conservation Messaging
10 September 2021 7:46pm
25 February 2022 9:52am
Hi Helga,
We've currently paused our Journal Club sessions while we're in the final stages of testing and launching our new community platform. We'll definitely be brining it back soon - maybe April? I'll let you know how you can join once it's back up and running!
Steph
11 March 2022 5:15pm
Once you're up and running please add me to the list!
13 March 2022 3:06pm
Thanks. What's the link to the paper about conservation messaging?
New Conservation Tech Directory Update!
10 March 2022 8:35am
Opportunity: Graphic Designer
8 March 2022 12:00am
Survey on Economic Value of Ecological Data
27 January 2022 12:51am
23 February 2022 4:27pm
Just re-upping this in hopes that I can get some more responses if it gets to the top of people's feeds.
Opportunity: Communications and Digital Media Coordinator
16 February 2022 12:00am
Introducing the WILDLABS On the Edge Fellows
10 February 2022 12:00am
Media stories highlight WILDLABS research & community
10 February 2022 12:00am
Media stories highlight WILDLABS research & community
9 February 2022 8:03pm
The WILDLABS Fellowships & Awards Programme
28 January 2022 3:58pm
WILDLABS Fellowships & Awards: Matchmaking between tech and conservation
28 January 2022 3:22pm
AI for Conservation Office Hours: 2021 Review
14 December 2021 12:00am
The State of Conservation Technology 2021
13 December 2021 12:00am
Digital Naturalism Conference Sri Lanka 2022
22 November 2021 2:53pm
3 December 2021 5:56pm
great to see a new DiNaCon!
can't make it there myself, but highly recommended.
T
WILDLABS Fellowships
22 July 2021 12:23pm
22 July 2021 2:39pm
Congratulations, Steph.
This sounds like a great idea and a big step forward. Looking forward to hearing about all the projects. Also happy to help out if needed :)
Akiba
22 November 2021 2:52pm
Super cool! amazing thing to launch!
17 June 2022 10:42am
Alrighty, since I may as well participate in my own thing and I have thoughts about the tech4wildlife world this week..
It's been a very welcome calm week over with our team. It's been a really crazy nine months so it feels like this week has been the first time we've had a chance to do a big inhale.
I'm still so happy the new wildlabs platform is live out in the world and you all seem to be enjoying it - we've had 250+ new members join in the last few weeks, users are up 70% compared to this time last year and pageviews are up 160%. And we're seeing heaps of activity!
That pageview figure is particularly important for us for right now, as it means we're hitting that big goal of making all the great information sharing by our community easier to find and explore. As activity keeps scaling up, the challenge we're going to face will be about curation and making sure it's not just overwhelming. We have some tools, ways of configuring the site, different roles and new programmes ready to respond and help with that, but for now we're just happy you're all finding and starting to use the platform.
We are doing deployments every week to fix bugs, improve performance & launch new features. This week was a big one- our DM system went live, which has been the most requested feature. If you're curious, @FilipNest is providing an amusing deployment log here.
This week we've also been doing a big feature about our East Africa Community - @Netty_Cheruto took over all our socials (@wildlabsnet and WILDLABS Community) to share updates from the first workshop of our Women In Conservation Tech Programme: Kenya.
Our East Africa Community is the first regional WILDLABS community. It is the first step in our plan to establish locally led regional communities to connect and support #tech4wildlife practitioners all over the globe.
And finally, this week I've also spent a lot of time poking around various parts of the #tech4wildlife ecosystem. A few highlights..
This week I'm seeing a lot of questions coming up about career paths in #tech4wildlife. More than usual - which makes me wonder if it's time for us to do a proper series sharing different career paths people have taken into the sector (shout out if you want us to do this?)
EDIT: I'm getting DMs about this, so have started a thread here if you have ideas about us doing a series about career paths. Tell us your ideas here!
If you have advice..
My favourite ongoing convo this week is this discussion about solutions for tracking goats on a remote mountainous island. So much good advice and real experience being shared in it.
My favourite open question. We're seeing that most straight foward #tech4wildlife questions are being answered pretty quickly by our community, but if you're into #drones, @LindyClydeKnowlesasked one yesterday that still open but should be a simple answer if you have a moment. He's looking for advice about open source photogrammetry software options.
Finally, my fav article this week was from the team at Fieldkit about the impacts of the chip shortage on conservation tech - we've been hearing a lot of chat about this from our community, so the article and the subsquent comments on twitter etc have been interesting.
Right, I think that's a wrap from me. Our digest will hit inboxes in the next few hours so I'll drop a link to it as a final tweet to wrap this thread then. In the meantime - how's your week going? Would love to hear/see updates!
Steph