Sensors already equip a range of tools to enhance monitoring capacity for conservation. Some of the higher bandwidth technologies, like camera traps and acoustic monitoring systems, have been essential elements of the conservation toolkit for decades, and thus have enough users that we've created dedicated WILDLABS groups to address them. But a whole range of lower bandwidth sensors beyond these core technologies are being increasingly integrated into conservation monitoring systems, and offer rich new insights into the wildlife and ecosystems we're all working to protect. As with many technologies, cost and access have historically been challenges to the adoption of new sensors, but with low-cost and open-source solutions on the rise, we're excited to see what the future of this space holds.
Getting Started with Sensors:
- Watch Shah Selbe's Tech Tutors episode on scaling FieldKit, an open-source conservation sensor toolbox, from a project to a successful conservation tech product.
- Check out our Virtual Meetup about Low-Cost, Open-Source Solutions in conservation tech, including a talk by Alasdair Davies on the Arribada Initiative's work with thermal sensors in early warning systems.
- For a more in-depth introduction, watch the first video in our datalogger mini-series: Freaklabs: How do I get started with Arduino?
In this group, you'll meet others who are using and innovating diverse sensors in their work, discuss ways to make sensors more effective & accessible for conservationists, learn about what sensors are already helping us accomplish in the field, and have the opportunity to ask and answer questions. Join this group to get started!
Header image: Emma Vogel, University of Tromsø
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Hello, I am working as Enterprise Solution Architect with Department of Conservation, New Zealand Government. I am keen to learn the progresses and advancements made in the conservation space. This will provide us the starting point to collaborate and implement the technology.Tkx
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A systems and policy specialist, currently working as the Quality & Accreditation Manager for Ceres Tag.
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Octophin Digital
Application Developer at Octophin Digital and constant maker.
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Running a Tech for Good initiative at Cambridge Consultants, looking for organisations who need help developing new technology for conservation
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Wildlife Protection Solutions (WPS)
Technology Coordinator at Wildlife Protection Solutions
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Conservation Newbie, Technologist, Applications Developer, Hardware Tinkerer
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WILDLABS Coordinator based in Southern California
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Ol Pejeta Conservancy
IT Engineer at The Conservation Tech Lab in Ol Pejeta Conservancy. |Endeavoring to implement tech solutions for conservation.
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WILDLABS
I'm the Community Manager at WILDLABS
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"To paraphrase Hemingway, the chip shortage hit FieldKit in two ways: gradually and then suddenly."
16 June 2022
Rainforest Connection has multiple engineering positions that will suppor their work developing acoustic monitoring devices.
16 June 2022
David Will, Head of Innovation @ Island Conservation & Charles Ferland, VP & GM of Edge Computing & Communication Service Providers @ Lenovo
13 June 2022
The African Robotics Unit is looking for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to join A/Prof. Amir Patel’s lab at UCT. The Postdoc will investigate how sensor fusion can be leveraged to understand the locomotion of...
1 June 2022
Are you good at designing and making new sensors? UCL is seeking a fabrication workshop manager to support research work related to robotics, ecology, disability design and innovation, sensor systems and data.
31 May 2022
This season, we’re bringing together leading engineers, conservationists, and academics to explore the future of technology in movement ecology and ask where exactly investment is needed to catapult this field forward....
29 April 2022
Community Announcement
Are you an early career Kenyan conservationist looking to explore emerging conservation technologies while networking with a strong cohort of other female leaders? Apply now for our 6-month Women in Conservation Tech...
8 March 2022
Careers
The FieldKit team is now seeking a freelance Graphic Designer with a passion for conservation technology! If you'd like to use your skills to connect with a conservation technology community, please send a cover letter...
8 March 2022
In pursuit of saving the Monarch butterflies, Carlo Mondavi- pioneer of the Monarch challenge- was inspired to develop the world's first fully electric smart tractor tractor with co-founder and Chief Executive, Praveen...
29 November 2021
In this article, Swarm Technologies give a detailed analysis of the tradeoffs between the most common IoT connectivity solutions to improving food production, combating climate change, optimizing supply chains and many...
19 November 2021
GroupGets has a Group buy campaign for a μMoth v1.1(Round 2), that runs till Sat, 06 Nov 2021 12:55:00 PDT. The μMoth v1.1 goes for a Single-unit price of $99.99 + shipping.To join this buy, kindly visit this page
4 November 2021
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...
27 October 2021
July 2022
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Realizing I'm hopping onto this thread late, but I think one of the easiest ways to handle batteries is simply to work to minimize energy consumption--identify areas where we can... |
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Sensors | 2 days 5 hours ago | |
Yes!That's what we've achieved with a leg strap device and now moving to collar base devices.Kr,David |
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Biologging, Emerging Tech, Sensors | 4 days 16 hours ago | |
At Ol Pejeta, through the Kifaru Rising project, we have 19 FLIR thermal cameras that we use to address poaching as a conservation challenge.The cameras have been deployed along a... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict, Camera Traps, Sensors | 1 week 1 day ago | |
Dear Community,Together with Hackster.io, Seeed Studio is very happy to jointly organize “IoT Into... |
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AI for Conservation, Connectivity, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 2 weeks 3 days ago | |
What exact nutrients or parameters are you trying to measure? |
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Sensors | 3 weeks 6 days ago | |
Iray PH35. like a DV . thermal camera. 640*328,35mm. could make videos. 2400 USD, china product, easy ship to Vietnam. 1km is the range to check monkeys... |
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Sensors | 2 months 3 weeks ago | |
Hi, Can you clarify what you mean by "does not work"? If I were to guess, I'd say the firmware temperature compensation tables for the load cell tops out at 40... |
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Sensors | 5 months 2 weeks ago | |
Do you mean the sensor itself (that you're going make a tag out of) or a datalogger that records heart rate (sensor incoporated into a tag already)? Vectronic make some good... |
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Sensors | 7 months 3 weeks ago | |
Dear Wildlabs community, Not a 100 'wild' issue but this is a 'wild' collaboration we have. I'm collaborating on a project where the goal is to study... |
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Sensors | 7 months 3 weeks ago | |
Hi @LuciKirkpatrick Aha! A great strategy. I thought it might have been a 'wake on radio' solution, but the overlapping wait time is a really nice solution. Again... |
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Sensors | 7 months 3 weeks ago | |
Hi Wildlabbers! Tomorrow Shah Selbe will be our Tech Tutor and guide us through how to turn an innovative... |
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Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 8 months ago | |
Hi Adam, My name is Nicole, I work at Frontier Labs - we also make bioacoustic recorders (BARs) and are based in Brisbane, Australia. Yay for Australian tech! We have been... |
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Sensors | 9 months 1 week ago |
Thermal cameras for monitoring visitors in highly vulnerable conservation areas
21 June 2022 at 03:44pm
22 June 2022 at 07:14am
Thanks! Actually a major concern is wether thermal cameras could substitute the use of eco-counters, and therefore save money and reduce complexity in data analysis.
I will contact them.
23 June 2022 at 01:41pm
At Ol Pejeta, through the Kifaru Rising project, we have 19 FLIR thermal cameras that we use to address poaching as a conservation challenge.
The cameras have been deployed along a key fence line and are monitored 24/7 by a dedicated team.
The cameras have inbuilt analytics capabilities which allow us to design virtual fences/boundaries.
An Alert is generated whenever a human or vehicles crosses the virtual fence. Following an alert, appropriate ranger action is undertaken depending on the video content recorded with each alert.
I think the Alert feature available with these cameras could be leveraged to monitor the wildlife visitor interaction, seeing as a video clip is recorded with each alert, the thermal video clips could be reviewed to assess the wildlife-human interaction effects.
Conservation Technology and the Supply Chain
16 June 2022 at 02:27pm
Multiple Roles with Rainforest Connection

16 June 2022 at 09:15am
Virtual fencing / Kinetic energy harvesting / Holistic grazing
16 June 2022 at 07:12am
21 June 2022 at 07:59am
Hi,
Akiba! Thank you for the nice words.
It seems we're technologically at a point where power dissipation of digital processors can match the kinetic energy harvesting (KEH) power outputs - and it's getting better all the time. It can get very depressing when talking about real intermittent power available from a KEH generator (range of hundreds of uW to single digit mW - and 0 when no movement). That's why it's important to build the application and sampling times around it - and vice versa.
PS:
Great work with the soil sensors! I was playing around with the ThingsOnEdge cricket with the Dallas temp. sensor for my wife's compost temperature monitoring - it worked like a charm - but yeah - you need a Wi-Fi close by. It would be impossible for here to get precise compost turn-over times and consequently correct compost microbial-fungal composition without it!
21 June 2022 at 10:42pm
So for someone very much not on the tech-side of conservation tech.... kinetic energy harvesting collars are using the kinetic energy from the animal's movements to power the collar? Or have I completely butchered that?
27 June 2022 at 09:25am
Yes!
That's what we've achieved with a leg strap device and now moving to collar base devices.
Kr,
David
Join Seeed’s “IoT Into the Wild Contest for Sustainable Planet 2022” on Hackster to Get 100 Free Hardware and to Win $14,000+ in Prizes!!
14 June 2022 at 11:04am
Join Seeed’s “IoT Into the Wild Contest for Sustainable Planet 2022” on Hackster to Get 100 Free Hardware and to Win $14,000+ in Prizes!!!
14 June 2022 at 09:14am
Video: Delivering edge computing on Robinson Crusoe Island (Chile) to preserve biodiversity
13 June 2022 at 02:08pm
Post-doc in Multi-Sensor Fusion for Animal Biomechanics
1 June 2022 at 09:56am
UKAN+ Monitoring UK Biodiversity Symposium 15-16th June
31 May 2022 at 02:58pm
21 June 2022 at 09:20pm
You should talk with the folks at Arribada Initiative, like @Alasdair, as they've used thermal cameras to automatically detect polar bears & alert local response teams (to avoid human-wildlife conflict). The folks at ConservationAI are also doing similar work. RESOLVE also has the Trailguard system
Most of the geofencing projects I know of are working with tags rather than cameras (e.g., LionShield, Save the Elephants) but it sounds like that wouldn't be as relevant for your needs.
The Conservation Tech Directory may have other examples as well.