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
- @tmcgrath
- | He / Him
Geographer, Program Manager, Engineering Manager
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WILDLABS
This account is managed by the WILDLABS Team. Tag us or DM whenever you need help from our community team.
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Early-career movement ecologist currently working with an interdisciplinary team to develop and deploy animal-borne tracking devices with the interest of monitoring and studying the fine-scale behaviors of large carnivores, particularly in the context of human wildlife conflict
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- 10 Groups
- @frides238
- | She/her
Hi! I am Frida Ruiz, a current Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student very interested in habitat restoration & conservation. I am excited to connect with others and learn about technology applications within applied ecology & potential research opportunities
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- 13 Groups
World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
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- 12 Discussions
- 15 Groups
Technologist, birder, photographer and mountain guide.
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- 18 Groups
- @vandita_shukla
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PhD candidate studying drone flight planning for enabling tracking and identification of individual characteristics of wildlife; member of the WildDrone, an MSCA Doctoral Network funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research
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- 20 Groups
Movement Ecologist studying the where, why, and how animals move throughout our world. Current work is investigating the movement and energetics of large neotropical bats in a changing environment with ephemeral resources.
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- 23 Discussions
- 22 Groups
- @amykukulya
- | she/her
Amy Kukulya is an ocean tech innovator and conservationist from the US. She has captured thrilling footage of megafauna using novel biologger and oceanrobotCams—SharkCam, TurtleCam featured across the globe on mainstream media outlets.
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GreenLab
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Western Sydney University
Zoologist
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As a visiting research scholar with UNODC, Isla Duporge asked wildlife crime experts about their experiences using remote sensing technologies to combat illicit wildlife and forest activities. In this article, Isla...
7 November 2016
Seabirds are killed in longline fisheries at such a fast rate that albatrosses cannot breed fast enough to rebuild populations. Solutions exist to prevent this “bycatch”; current best practice recommends fishing...
5 August 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
More than half of all primate species are endangered, including our closest living relative, the chimpanzee. Could Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) be applied to primates as well as it has been for other taxa? In this...
29 June 2016
How do new colonies come about? And why do we observe young colonies to grow much more rapidly than their own production of chicks would allow them to? As Jana W. E. Jeglinski explains, cutting edge developments of...
25 April 2016
The Captain Planet Foundation is offering EcoTech grants in the amount of $2,500 to engage children in inquiry-based project in STEM fields.
18 February 2016
We are living in the midst of a pretty exciting era. Never before has humanity been more educated, more connected, more enabled, or more empowered than we are today. There are many reasons to be optimistic about the...
17 February 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
David Gruber, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, is a marine biologist working to develop fluorescent proteins into modulatable probes with neurobiological and medical applications. In his talk for the WWF Fuller...
24 December 2015
John Amos, President of SkyTruth, explores how remote sensing is being used in conservation today and the importance of sky-truthing. He examines the role that citizen scientists can play in increasing transparency in...
21 December 2015
Gary Atkinson, Director of Emerging Technologies at ARM, explains why we should be interested in the Internet of Things. Could it be a game changer for conservation?
10 December 2015
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
November 2023
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi. I've been following the opencollar initiative and was wondering what the current status is. The project looks amazing! |
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Sensors | 3 years 10 months ago | |
Hi all, Some ETAG rfid-readers developped by Eli Bridge et al. are now avaible at https://www.labmaker.org/collections/earth-and-ecology/products/etag. The price is high,... |
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Sensors | 3 years 10 months ago | |
Hi all, Some ETAG rfid-readers are now avaible at https://www.labmaker.org/collections/earth-and-ecology/products/etag. The price is high, though: USD139. Yvan |
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Sensors | 3 years 10 months ago | |
I'd love to chat more! I'll be reaching out soon! |
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Sensors | 3 years 11 months ago | |
Yes im hoping the power bank and a few extra mp3s will get it done this year. will look into a better system this winter now that I have some help:) |
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Sensors | 4 years ago | |
Please see my edits above |
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Sensors | 4 years 1 month ago | |
We are developing a Raspberry Pi 4 sized SDR --- frequency range 20Mhz-6GHz. Rx Sensitivity around 120 --- higher is possible with some... |
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Sensors | 4 years 1 month ago | |
Dear all, I am currently developing a method to extract subgroups from dynamic network data. My current use case is data collected on... |
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Sensors | 4 years 2 months ago | |
I need to play a loop of sound to desensitize animals for project. The system needs to be solar powered 24/7 for 2-3 months. I have solar... |
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Sensors | 4 years 3 months ago | |
Hi all, we have been developing low cost open source proximity loggers for small animals (minimum logger weight is currently 1g) and we are... |
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Sensors | 4 years 5 months ago | |
Hi Alasdair- Currently the Lepton is not on the list. If you would, please fill out the form on this webpage and request the Lepton be added - I will also bring it... |
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Sensors | 5 years ago | |
Hi all, I am currently working on my grad film project, and I'm looking for UK environmental projects using the Raspberry... |
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Sensors | 5 years ago |
Using IoT and Machine Learning to help protect Kenya's Rivers
21 October 2021 12:00am
Technical Difficulties: Cleared for Takeoff
20 October 2021 12:00am
Technical Difficulties: The Path to Success
14 October 2021 12:00am
Technical Difficulties: Understanding the Realities
13 October 2021 12:00am
Download Now: Designing an Effective Conservation Technology Enclosure
24 September 2021 12:00am
Feedback welcome
17 August 2021 1:44am
22 September 2021 7:19am
Hi guys. Frontier Labs designed the Solar BAR for the Australian Acoustic Observatory (you mihgt have seen the WildLab video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohQURr74OvE&list=PLWcz3iwCnCqRL193GvknRWQd1_kG7Rs4g&index=1).
vIn answer to your question, we are currently putting together some short videos showing the design decisions we made during developme and why we made them. The weight vs battery power is something we take incredibly seriously, and is the reason for a lot of cool features you might not notice otherwise. Please let me know if you have any specific questions you would like covered and I'll do my best to get them answered by our engineers :) Nic
22 September 2021 7:25am
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 making acoustic recorders for more than 10 years (we made the recorders for the Australian Acoustic Observatory) and are always looking to innovate. These are great questions! We do get asked for the remote verification occassionally, but at the moment localization is a feature we are perfecting above and beyond what is currently available, so no work on this at the moment.
I'd love to find out more about your studies and see if we could help you answer some of these questions based on what we know about market trends.
Please feel free to get in touch with me if you'd like more info. PS I am not one of the engineers, but I have their ear haha
Tech Tutors: How do I use animal-borne imaging technology in marine and terrestrial environments?
26 August 2021 12:10am
15 September 2021 6:41am
Hi @Rob+Appleby !
The implementation in the Vectronic camera collar is purely store on board - no transmission.
I believe they simply stuck one of the Foxeer action ("Box") cameras inside and wakes it up and triggers it according to the camera schedule uoloaded to the collar (still and video options).
RunCam is another manufacturer of FPV and action cameras which might be interesting for you.
Cheers,
Lars
15 September 2021 11:24pm
Hi Lars,
I have a colleague that's successfully used the Mobius cam system (https://www.mobius-actioncam.com/) for camera collars as well. RC cams are popular choice it seems. I have been attempting to tweak cheaper 'cube' cameras (e.g. https://tinyurl.com/w72kh77r) to do a similar job. I am using a bit of Frankestein's monster array of small control boards, including an Adafruit low power timer (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3573) and a SparkFun pro mini (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11113). I am using an SMD transistor as a switch to control power, and another could be added to control settings if needed. Hoping to do a tutorial on it at some point in case there's any interest.
Cheers,
Rob
16 September 2021 6:54am
Would certainly be cool to see a tutorial on this! Looking forward to that!
How do I choose the right camera trap(s) based on interests, goals, and species?
6 July 2021 12:00am
GroupGets: μMoth Now Available
27 May 2021 12:00am
(Arctic Fox) trap alarm based on LoRa Adafruit
21 April 2021 2:48pm
26 April 2021 7:03pm
Hi and thanks for your tips, Akiba!
I was actually thinking about the little greenhouse effect today when leaving the box in the afternoon sun. It is a rather cold environment in Greenland were I will deploy these though, so I may be OK. I can always give the tops a bit of white or silver paint. For the base station, I like to be able to see the LEDs directly on the board. This will also not be left out in the sun.
I will try to get some 2mm acrylic sheet for the mounting plate, thanks!
Cheers,
Lars
4 May 2021 9:50am
I realised I actually had a piece of FR-4 fiberglass (perfboard) lying around so I used this as mounting plate. I have also tried fixing the magnet (reed) switch to the plate to hold it in place at the bottom of the box. Will do some neater cable managing as I get the remaining parts. I will try to fit a lipo solar charger next to the radiofeather. I realised that it will be hard to attach USB plugs (for reprogramming or diagnostics) but have ordered some cables with angled plugs hoping they will fit.
I am still considering an additional reed switch as a on-off switch.
20 May 2021 2:41pm
Almost done with the trap alarms.
I added an additional buzzer (with internal circuitry) to get more noise. The added benefit is that the slightly different tunes creates interference that makes the sound much more annoying ;)
I added magnetic on-off switches to all units (under the power managiing unit). The trap release reed switch is located on the other side. I raised the base plates a bit to make room for the lipo batteries underneath them.
Still need to do some more testing on power usage and reliability. I managed a range of 2.5 km, but I believe I could get more when I find a place with better line of sight. I will try to test it over water at a fjiord.
Announcing the Conservation Technology Award
4 May 2021 12:00am
WWF: Carnivore Collaring in Zambia
28 April 2021 12:00am
Webinar: Mission Possible: Deployment
21 April 2021 12:00am
Margo Gadfly: A Versatile Wildlife Deterrent
31 March 2021 12:00am
The 2021 #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge: Community Highlights
25 March 2021 12:00am
Event: 2021 Open Hardware Summit
22 March 2021 12:00am
Arm technologies: What do you use?
10 February 2021 9:07pm
11 February 2021 3:45am
Hi Ellie.
This isn't necessarily wildlife but Jacinta and I used the CC1310 wireless chip with the ARM Cortex M3 inside for a project with the International Rice Research Institute. It was to test precision irrigation on rice crops for dry planting and to remove the need for the traditional flood based planting systems. This allows rice to grow in arid regions that traditionally can't support rice as a staple crop. Water scarcity is also a worry for the institute due to global warming, hence focusing on growing rice in low-water environments. There's more information on it here.
For those interested, the CC1310 uses 900 MHz and supports the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. It's one of the standard chips used in the SigFox protocol, although we mainly just used it for communications and not for SigFox implementation. We also implemented a gateway device that collected data from the networked rice paddies and sent water level data to the government server via GSM using SMS. We typically use HTTP but in the Philippines, cellular internet isn't as reliable as SMS, especially in rural areas. Both boards are based on the ARM Cortex M3.
I've attached pics of the wireless sensor boards and gateway we developed for this project as well.
Akiba
1 March 2021 12:33am
I've been tinkering with NVidia Jetson boards for about 2 years now. This is basically a small ARM computer, comes with an Ubuntu image but could run any linux I think. It's basically a mini computer with an Nvidia GPU, so you can do all sorts of things at 'the edge'.
I have been (on and off) building a bird feeder camera that would id birds and send just the text not images. Ultimately I would like to build a smart camera trap that would id animals and conserve bandwith by just uploading the data.
I started with the Jetson Nano, about 100 USD but when I started it was difficult to do things due to ARM.
Now I am working with a Jetson NX, about 500 USD and things are way easier. Visual Studio Code runs there natively, as do many python libraries and there are even a lot of containers ready made now.
Also, AWS has Graviton instances now - an EC2 ARM computer. One of my plans is to use AWS for building, testing, etc. and now ARM is an option there too.
12 March 2021 7:08pm
Hi Barry,
I am tinkering with similar edge devices and aspirations! I recently acquired the Jetson Nano to start testing some aspects of the BearID Project software pipeline. What were the main issues with the Nano? Is it mainly the build process (speed and memory)? The NX uses very similar CPU cores (but 6 instead of 4), bigger/faster DRAM (8GB vs 4GB) and much faster GPU (especially if you are using INT8 instead of FLOAT32). I'm also playing around with Raspberry Pi and a hardware accelerator.
The Arm-based EC2 instances on AWS should be a great help in compilation!
Full disclosure: I work for Arm, but developing on these platforms is not part of my role there. This is purely a passion project!
Ed
Funding Opportunity: COVID-19 Science Fund
10 March 2021 12:00am
Method for mapping & finding nest boxes
29 September 2020 12:03pm
1 March 2021 11:10am
I don't know much about them either. I do not think they need to face a certain way.
I am pretty sure they can be bougt in bulk. That is what the outdoor clothes companies do.
Try contacting Dale Atkins from RECCO.
2 March 2021 2:52am
Hi Lars, Nida,
Riffing on the Recco idea, if you have access to the detector, it's possible to make a Recco-compatible reflector for very cheap, since for this purpose it won't need to be sewn into clothing or put through a washing machine. There is no magic behind the reflector technology, I think it can be made in small quantities for USD1-2/each. It is basically RFID technology, and you know how cheap they're trying to be. Here is a paper talking about just that. Especially take a look at their reference [4], which details an attempt at making Recco-compatible reflectors, but using older components (the paper was published in 1997). There are much better components now.
I bet Recco detectors are expensive. But there's a way around that! 434MHz transmitters and 868MHz receivers are easy to get; together, these constitute the detector. Another possibility is 13.56MHz/27.2MHz. Not sure about the detection range though.
Thanks,
-harold
9 March 2021 9:26am
Thanks for the paper Harold, this looks like a possibility. Especially if there's a way to make bespoke detectors
Virtual Event: FieldKit Open House
9 March 2021 12:00am
Virtual Event: Carnivores and Camera Traps
4 March 2021 12:00am
Looking for old/dummy Vectronics collars
3 March 2021 8:07am
Collaboration Spotlight: BoomBox
26 February 2021 12:00am
WWF: Protecting Ferrets with Drones and Vaccines
17 February 2021 12:00am
News: FieldKit Presales and WSJ Feature
11 February 2021 12:00am
How do I get started with LoRa? Connectivity in conservation
1 February 2021 12:00am
Protecting Wildlife with Machine Learning
29 January 2021 12:00am
New Paper: Empowering Rangers Through Technology and Innovation
27 January 2021 12:00am
WWF: Using Technology to Detect and Protect the Endangered Black-Footed Ferret
19 January 2021 12:00am
Sustainable Fishing Challenges: Fish Catch Monitoring
4 December 2020 12:00am
25 August 2021 9:11am
Hi All, sorry for the delayed response.
"In studies that often require deploying a half-dozen sensors or more, a sheer quantity of batteries becomes a major logistical hurdle. This is a similar problem we see with some solar systems: once deployed, they can be great (solar panel + charge controller + battery pack), but the deployment logistics can be extremely tricky from a bulk and weight perspective."
I agree, I don't believe that it should be necessary to be utilising such giant batteries & solar systems to support audio recording devices with the current developments of batteries and very low power devices, it annoys me that lead-acid batteries actually still exist.
I am assuming that the decision on batteries and photovoltaic systems would be based on availability and cost, or are they specific to acoustic devices?
Thanks All,
Adam.