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
- 663 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
- 12 Resources
- 54 Discussions
- 24 Groups
- @EllieW
- | She/Her
- 64 Resources
- 124 Discussions
- 14 Groups
- @Faiye
- | She/Her
A conservationist by behaviour and knowledge. Happy to help in matters community conservation.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 1 Groups
- @rgaston5
- | he/him
I am an educator, and a certified California Climate Steward. I have skills in machine learning and a passion for the environment and conservation
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 13 Groups
- @kschaal
- | she/her
I'm a microbial ecologist and evolutionary biologist studying how natural bacterial communities respond to environmental change, with a focus on predator-prey interactions.
- 1 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- 1 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 1 Groups
- @SarahEnnett
- | she/her
IoT ambassador looking to test and showcase new tech for good
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- 0 Discussions
- 1 Groups
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- 1 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 6 Groups
Based in Australia, in the Blue Mountains and working with WWF-Australia on a new program "Eyes on Country". Working on the interface of tech, conservation and First Nations/Ranger groups.
- 0 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 11 Groups
- @Arno
- | He/Him
I am a master's student currently working on acoustic monitoring of an Endangered frog species in South Africa.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @EllieW
- | She/Her
- 64 Resources
- 124 Discussions
- 14 Groups
- @viquilassaga
- | She/her
Im a biologist at the National University of Cordoba and I did my final thesis on mammals in a reserve in my province. Also, I´m PM4R Master certificated for BID and I work as a Project Manager at Natura International, an NGO dedicated to the creation of protected areas.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 7 Discussions
- 2 Groups
Sensing Clues Foundation
- 0 Resources
- 44 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Article
Read in detail about how to use The Inventory, our new living directory of conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects.
1 May 2024
Article
The Inventory is your one-stop shop for conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects. Start contributing to it now!
1 May 2024
Technology to End the Sixth Mass Extinction. Salary: $132 - $160k; Location: Seattle WA; 7+ years of experience in hardware product development and manufacturing; View post for full job description
1 May 2024
Tap into our new and exciting community-focused conversation series! In this first season of InConversation, we're in East Africa with host Esther Githinji. Listen in as we chat one-on-one with your favourite...
30 April 2024
Article
What better way to conclude InConversation Season 1: East Africa than by delving into the exciting yet complex world of #tech4wildlife innovation across the region. This episode is going to be double the insight and...
30 April 2024
The North Carolina Zoo seeks a dynamic, motivated and progressive individual to serve as the Associate Curator of International Conservation within the zoos’ Conservation, Education and Science (CES) program. The...
29 April 2024
It has been an extraordinary year supporting and growing the regional East African Conservation Technology Community at WILDLABS. We've made great strides and unlocked exciting opportunities for our community as we...
29 April 2024
Careers
Great opportunity to join our team! We are #hiring. We’re excited to announce that we’re looking for a talented individual to perform the role of Monitoring Team Lead. If you’re a great team player, we’d love to...
23 April 2024
Apply to the inaugural GOSH Ambassador Program by May 15!
18 April 2024
Article
Are you interested in getting more involved in the WILDLABS community? Do you want an opportunity to build your network and get more connected to other conservation tech folks in your field? Apply to be a group manager!
17 April 2024
We’ve received lots of interest in opening new groups on WILDLABS, so we’re rolling out a formalized process to get them off the ground.
15 April 2024
Careers
The Fonseca Leadership Program is open to nationals of eligible countries within WWF-US and GEF priority areas who are already enrolled/are interested in enrolling in a master’s or PhD program. Eligible countries...
3 April 2024
May 2024
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February 2023
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi Sam- welcome! Thanks for being the very first reviewer on #wpsWatch that's so awesome to spot :D |
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Community Base | 19 hours 44 minutes ago | |
I noticed the site being annoyingly slow some time last week. Thank you for clearing that up, for finding the cause and solving the issue.I'm not claiming deep knowledge on AI,... |
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Community Base | 2 days 15 hours ago | |
Hello Ms Esther👋Thank you for taking your time to reply to me with such helpful response.I'm interested in conservation technology such as camera traps, GIS and Remote sensing,... |
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Early Career, East Africa Community, Community Base | 1 week 3 days ago | |
Hi Soumya , Interested to know if you are pursuing distance education in ML while at your current job. I would love to hear more about your journey on course specifics... |
+12
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Community Base, Early Career | 1 week 6 days ago | |
Totally agree.Inititally sceptical until I saw Helena and Graeme were involved.MJ |
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Acoustics, Citizen Science, Community Base, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 2 weeks ago | |
Hi @Frank_van_der_Most,great point and I will address this in my little talk next week.Greetings from Austria,Robin |
+11
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Community Base | 2 weeks 1 day ago | |
I got assistance. super grateful! |
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Climate Change, Community Base, East Africa Community, Conservation Tech Training and Education | 2 weeks 1 day ago | |
Awesome, thanks for the summary! |
+8
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Protected Area Management Tools, Community Base | 1 month 1 week ago | |
@Rob_Appleby follow these instructions to get your Sprout badge! |
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Community Base | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
Hi Kevin and Kim, Apologies for the delayed response; however, we were unable to provide specific information until today. We aim to reach out to each applicant in the... |
+38
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Community Base | 2 months ago | |
Thanks @alexrood for creating this visual! |
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Community Base | 2 months ago | |
Hi Danilo. you seem very passionate about this initiative which is a good start.It is an interesting coincidence that I am starting another project for the coral reefs in the... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Biologging, Camera Traps, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Community Base, Connectivity, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Sensors, Software and Mobile Apps, Wildlife Crime | 3 months ago |
Take the WILDLABS Conservation Tech Survey 2020!
8 July 2020 1:06am
8 September 2020 4:48pm
Although discussing challenges is crucial, we also want to hear about what makes you optimistic about the future of conservation tech. Increasing accessibility of tools, a developing culture of collaboration, the rate at which the field is evolving, growing support from the conservation community, and the opportunities around big tech involvement have come up the most so far. What do you think?
8 September 2020 4:49pm
Obviously, we're barely scratching the surface here of the rich content we're excited to fully analyze and share back with you all. If you haven't taken the survey yet, now is the chance to have your say - it only takes about 13 minutes to complete. We know it's a busy time for everyone, but the more responses we get the more we can represent the reality of the complex experiences and perspectives we know this community holds. Follow this link to access the questionnaire and consent information, and let us know if you have any questions: https://colostate.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4VJSlNr69Kg7o0Z
Thank you all again for your time!
Facilitating Virtual Events: Helpful Resources + Q&A
19 August 2020 4:51pm
Recommendations for low cost & versatile teaching/training supplies
10 April 2020 2:02am
10 August 2020 1:47am
Hi all,
Teaching assistant here for the Fung Fellowship that Dan linked above. First of all, THANK you for the responses @carlybatist & @Rob Appleby. This has been extremely helpful for what type of technology we could introduce to students. We will report back with what we use this fall and student's feedback/comments/enthusiasm!
One point that is particularly relevant now is that this course will now be completely remote for the fall semester. Given that this will eliminate any opportunity for students to have hands-on time with a physical device...does anyone have any additional recommendations specifically that would work in a remote teaching environment?
Thank you in advance!
Andy
17 August 2020 4:03pm
Hi Andy,
My name is Elizabeth (Liz) Bondi, I'm a PhD Candidate in Computer Science at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, advised by Prof. Milind Tambe. In brief, my research has primarily focused on using drones and AI for wildlife conservation.
As an intern at Microsoft Research with Dr. Ashish Kapoor, Dr. Debadeepta Dey, and Dr. Lucas Joppa, we built a simulated African savanna environment in Microsoft AirSim, and flew a simulated drone around it. Our goal was to create an automatically-labeled image dataset for training machine learning models, but I have also used it for demonstrations in the past to allow students to find specific animals while flying the drone around, for example. The AirSim environment will likely require GPUs, but perhaps access to the cloud (e.g., Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS) could be purchased for students.
One other note, I believe Sara Beery also used AirSim for camera traps.
Please feel free to check out Microsoft AirSim and download the African savanna environment (download "Africa.zip"). Our papers (see "BIRDSAI" 2020 and "AirSim-W" 2018 papers in particular) and the dataset are also available for some more information. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you would like to discuss anything further.
Best,
Liz
18 August 2020 8:40pm
Awesome thank you Liz! We will check this resource out and reach out if we want to discuss more or have any questions.
Best,
Andy
Share your funniest field fails with us!
13 July 2020 10:47pm
5 August 2020 1:42am
Here's a video and a pic of a field fail on a project we did with Dr. Meredith Palmer. We designed and built an automated behavioral response system (ABRS) where we would play a sound when a camera trap was triggered and then record the video of the animal's response to it. Unfortunately the hyena's response to the sound of a prey was to eat the audio system.
Here's a link to the last video captured by the system:
https://youtu.be/h7SsuzAeJ5U
And here' s a pic of the aftermath:
Tools to do live translations?
4 August 2020 1:54pm
Survey: Cons Tech Needs Assessment
28 July 2020 7:17pm
29 July 2020 3:17am
Done. Good luck with the survey :)
Fun Quiz Alert: What Conservation Tech Tool Are You?
16 July 2020 7:40pm
17 July 2020 8:54pm
Got a drone myself
Tech Tutors Happy Hour: Thursday, July 16th
10 July 2020 6:22pm
13 July 2020 2:13am
Oh cool. Looking forward to the happy hour! I'm curious just to chat and virtually eavesdrop.
WILDLABS Community Survey Input: Ideas for 2020?
24 April 2020 4:29am
Survey: Conservation Tech Applications in Vietnam
23 April 2020 4:30am
Any experts on Amazonian deforestation?
14 April 2020 3:00am
Conservation Technology Database
18 July 2019 4:42pm
27 August 2019 9:51am
Are you familiar with the Conservation Evidence database? https://www.conservationevidence.com/
It is a searchable database of conservation actions (including but not limited to technological solutions), categorised by effectiveness with relevant references. To me it sounds a lot like what you are looking for.
13 April 2020 5:56pm
I wasn't familiar but thank you for sharing this!
SURVEY: “Science and technology application for Wildlife Conservation”
13 April 2020 5:21am
Con X Tech Prize: Funding for early-stage conservation tech ideas
2 April 2020 3:51pm
A community response to help support the Australian bushfire crisis
4 January 2020 11:01pm
13 January 2020 5:02am
Hi Tom,
okay good news, Aaron's been able to track down the designs for you. He's going to drop them in the slack chat - he'll be the person you can ask questions if needed as well.
Steph
18 February 2020 10:17am
Hi all,
I've put together a short list (below) that I've pulled from the Slack channel related to long term and short term projects that were noted or posted.
It's clear that one need is to identify if a quarterly meeting (to see where various projects are vs start anything new) is needed, or that we see if anyone in the community is able fill a voluntary co-ordination role to check up on various projects. One thing at the back of my mind is to look at this from the perspective that if new fires start at scale what could we have in place, or how could we react. That may drive forward a few ideas and help us to focus on what we can do in the short term as there are plenty of project discussions around physical water feeders etc.
Here's what I got from the Slack channel;
Long term
- Work with Conservation Volunteers Australia to establish projects suitable for volunteers, especially things that can be done remotely, but also out in the field.
- Develop a small but skilled and experienced "brains trust" that can provide input for any environmental project / organisation which needs 'tech smarts' but doesn't have them in house.
Short term
- Australian Citizen Science Association - short term priorities are replacing lost nest boxes and getting more she-oaks in the ground. That has to start happening soon to be useful for the 2020 breeding season (the boxes, not the trees obviously).
- Continue to assess recovery program staff needs and the recovery team's priorities
- Zooniverse want to test ALA data sharing, using air quality data can involve remote volunteers without danger
- Setting up field cameras in burnt areas, to identify remaining wildlife or ferals (Zooniverse, ALA/DigiVol)
- Recording wildlife water point or feed locations and monitoring for maintenance, ie refills. (Kobo, other app?
- Setting up shelter tunnels in burnt areas - and recording locations, with possible addition of field cameras (Zooniverse, ALA/Digivol).
****
2 April 2020 3:35pm
Hello everyone. I hope you're well and your friends and families are safe during the Covid-19 crisis. I know that many of us are out of sync during the shut downs around the world so it isn't the easiest of times to think back on the bush fires, but also at the back of mind is the recurrence again and the recovery still underway / getting ahead of time with solutions. There is however a new opportunity that has come to light. The Australian Government has opened an application form for a $100k - £1m grant, with the desc;
The Wildlife and Habitat Bushfire Recovery Program will provide funding to support the immediate survival and long-term recovery and resilience for fire-affected Australian animals, plants, ecological communities and other natural assets and their cultural values for Indigenous Australians.
This may be the opportunity we need to move forward and progress some of the ideas we all noted. We will need Oz group WildLABS orgs and contacts on the ground, but if feel you have the capacity at this time to support a submission and be a part of it, then get in touch.
Bipod suggestion
28 March 2020 9:31am
COVID19 VIRTUAL HACKATHON, MARCH 26-30
26 March 2020 6:02pm
Is this group still live?
2 January 2019 5:09pm
15 January 2019 5:14pm
Hi,
So I have found out that Zoohackathon may actually happen in June 2019 this year, which is earlier than normal. I'm meeting with the US Embassy w/c 28th Jan and hope to find out more then and will follow up after,
Soph
16 January 2019 6:40pm
Fantastic news. Do keep me updated as I excited to commit to this.
20 February 2020 12:18am
Hello!
I'm new here, so I've missed these past events. I would love to hear about any upcoming hackathons :)
Innovate for Wildlife and People Challenge - Deadline February 24
20 December 2019 6:36pm
31 January 2020 1:06pm
Hi Everyone -
This Innovation Challenge is now open for Project Ideas, so if you are interested please go ahead and read more on the Challenge page here, where you will also find the link to Sign Up as a Project Leader or download a PDF that shows the application template and the background to the challenge.
We really welcome any ideas that fit the challenge description, and if you engage, we will have a chance to also further develop your Project idea during the review phase, based on feedback by a global community of subject-matter experts.
https://impactio.global/innovate-for-wildlife-and-people-challenge
Any questions, I am here! Anna
CAPSULE- World’s Largest Hackathon for Conservation
21 January 2020 1:17pm
내려 anigana.co.kr/sandz/ - 샌즈카지노
16 January 2020 12:15pm
Webinar: The Business of Saving the Planet: Technology, Innovation & Intelligence in Conservation, Jan 7
20 December 2019 4:32pm
An Engineer’s Experience at International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB)
18 November 2019 10:16am
Download the WILDLABS Community Review 2018-19
30 October 2019 12:00am
Dan Pallotta is hosting a complimentary workshop in NYC on Nov 6th for nonprofit board membership engagement.
17 October 2019 3:32pm
An ICCB newbie's experience
10 October 2019 12:32pm
WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Series: Season Three
24 September 2019 10:01am
WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Series – Season 3
5 September 2019 1:04am
The future of conservation tech: 5 key discussions
22 August 2019 5:31pm
27 August 2019 12:47pm
Who, who, who?
Steph! Steph! Steph!
27 August 2019 12:51pm
Ha! Not likely. I suspect this might be a little beyond just one person. But I will do my bit to pull the threads together and nudge things along..
27 August 2019 9:24pm
Hi Steph - as a career technologist now looking to see how I can engage my skills and experience in the world of conservation technology, this is pretty interesting review of the state of play right now.
All organisations (commercial, government, not-for-profits, military and other services ) struggle with the question of how and when to deploy technology as part of their overall systems of operation and how then to ensure that they reap the expected benefits. It's not simple, there is rarely if ever a perfect solution of any scope and longevity but of course many organisations do garner very significant beneifts from the efficient use of mainstream technologies and the innovative use of unusual or emerging technologies.
A few quick remarks spring to mind from your notes:
1) The Gartner hype cycle - it's a pretty useful visualisation (much of the latter part of my career was spent trying to guide technologies targeted at large enterprises from the "early adopter" to the "mainstream" stages) and most useful for helping a tech user to decide what kind of user they should be in their current context and where the technologies that are coming under consideration fall on that cycle of maturity. A mismatch ? Then take care ...
2) Conservation tech is not a washing machine - well that depends. I imagine there are a number of different techs and projects and the "washing machine" status will vary. If you know that the tech you NEED to meet your project aims is unproven, don't expect a washing machine level of ease of use ! If you think you're deploying a mainstream tech, then DO expect a "washing machine". As an example, if you buy and deploy a simple camera trap, you expect a good manual (albeit developed for the manufacturer's target market, which may be hunters in the USA) and you expect the device to operate in accordance with the manual. If you're deploying a set of networked sensors that will use AI in real time to detect and interact with animals in the environment - don't expect a smooth ride. In fact in this latter case, proving the technology may be one of the objectives of the study, whereas in the former, the data being collected was the required resource for the study objectives.
3) System engineering and enterprise architecture are the two disciplines that organisation use to try to get their whole tech strategy and execution to work to meet their goals. Done well, it means that the business goals are identified and understood and the allocation of tasks between people and different techs is optimally made for performance and cost effectiveness. It's how to ensure a well balanced overall system and process approach. It's an area that been studied and there are methods for implementing this discipline. In fact, if I then add there are many, many methods for implementation, you may realise that it's a problem that's easily stated and less easily solved, but still is generally better that having a splash on the latest shiny tech and hoping for the best.
4) There will be trends, experiences and best practices that can be shared, but naturally these emerge as technologies mature - nobody knows best practice the first time and innovators will also necessarily face unique challenges. However defining some ontologies or frameworks to help record and structure experiences may very well be worthwhile
Andy
Calling all makers, hackers and tinkerers
23 August 2019 7:33pm
8 September 2020 4:44pm
So far we've heard from 244 respondents based in 33 countries. They have identified themselves mostly as conservation practitioners (27%), technologists (26%), and researchers (23%). We've seen more representation from male respondents (66%) than female ones (34%), and substantially higher response rates from North America and Europe than any other region, so please help us better represent the diversity of the community if you can. Forward the survey link to colleagues and encourage them to share their experiences: https://colostate.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4VJSlNr69Kg7o0Z