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
December 2023
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11 Products
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97 Products
1 R&D Projects
66 Organisations
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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I don't think KEH would influence accelerometry at all.One other way to think about it is - the KEH is a movement sensor itself.The GPS is quite a severe factor in the energy... |
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Biologging, Emerging Tech, Sensors | 1 year 8 months ago | |
Hello! I have 2 rescued sulcata tortoises in my care. I would like to put some kind of tracking device on them so I can find them if they... |
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Sensors | 1 year 9 months ago | |
On the topic of potential sources for harvested power, and in the category of "out there"... I have spent some considerable (likely too much) time exploring harvesting... |
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Sensors | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Hey all!I am Ayush, a core team member of my school's Robotics Club (Center For Innovation, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras). There... |
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Drones, Sensors, Wildlife Crime, Early Career | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Dear Community,Together with Hackster.io, Seeed Studio is very happy to jointly organize “IoT Into the Wild Contest for Sustainable Plant... |
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AI for Conservation, Connectivity, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 1 year 11 months ago | |
What exact nutrients or parameters are you trying to measure? |
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Sensors | 1 year 11 months 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 years 1 month 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 | 2 years 4 months 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 | 2 years 6 months ago | |
Dear Wildlabs community, Not a 100 'wild' issue but this is a 'wild' collaboration we have. I'm collaborating... |
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Sensors | 2 years 6 months 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 | 2 years 6 months ago | |
Hi Wildlabbers! Tomorrow Shah Selbe will be our Tech Tutor and guide us through how to turn an innovative conservation tech... |
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Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 2 years 6 months ago |
Innovation wanted: Technology Testing to Mitigate Human-Elephant Conflict in West Bengal
19 June 2023 10:54pm
The Wildlife Society Conference
19 June 2023 5:59am
Wildlife Monitoring Engineer
8 June 2023 4:54pm
FieldKit: Accessible Sensor Technology for All
23 May 2023 10:26pm
How sensors in "Smart Eggs" are helping Condors
19 May 2023 12:30am
A really interesting article on how the Oregon Zoo's condor team have used sensors and 3D printed eggs to monitor the conditions inside California Condor nests. Because condors are still endangered, every chick is important to the species' longterm success, so being able to monitor nests for potential changes and more effectively replicate natural nest conditions in incubators is a big step forward for improving their breeding program.
Introducing the 2023 Conservation Tech Showcase
11 May 2023 5:06pm
Looking for an off-the-shelf saltwater switch
6 May 2023 6:05am
Field testing of a radio telemetry system to be deployed in the sea.
24 January 2023 6:52am
21 March 2023 8:52am
Oh, great link! Been doing marine projects recently and a big headache is protecting submerged electronics. I've kind of heard of many of those techniques, but great to see them collected all in one place and with first hand experienced commentary regarding them.
12 April 2023 2:32pm
Not sure exactly how your telemetry will be deployed, but if it's going to be attached to an animal in a relatively non-invasive way, you might check with zoos or aquariums that have similar species.
I worked in that industry for a long time and we tested telemetry for seals, sea lions, polar bears and elephants. There might have been more, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head. This can help improve attachment methods and test how tough the animals will be on the equipment.
What are people using IoT for?
16 March 2019 3:27am
12 April 2023 4:31am
Cell phone detection is one of the more interesting anti-poaching approaches I've seen. Everyone is glued to their phones these days. Even poachers!
12 April 2023 8:34am
Yes it is quite clever! With multiple GSM towers/stations it should be possible to locate the phones (poachers) using trilateration.
12 April 2023 8:35am
Very cool, @BrettMargoSupplies ! Will keep an eye out for that wireless electrical fence!
The 59th Annual Meeting of Illinois Chapter of The Wildlife Society
12 April 2023 5:24am
Advice on afforable LiDAR scanners for Amazon forest surveys
5 April 2023 3:47pm
6 April 2023 6:21pm
Hi Jeremy,
With a quick search I've found the paper linked below. It looks like equipments such as Livox MID are sufficient for plot-level analyses, but not for individual trees. Also, it has performed worse in dense canopies and broadleaf forest, thus I believe we won't have a technology capable of doing what you aim for this amount of money (< $1000) in a few years from now.
I hope someone give us an alternative, though. :D
Best,
Camera to follow wasps/attach on wasps
9 March 2023 5:16am
11 March 2023 2:44am
Hi @Lars_Holst_Hansen @tom_august
The link to the video is amazing. Thank you for it.
The wasps that I am working on, are solitary. So, basically it is just this one female that builds the entire nest. Like what you (@tom_august) mentioned, the best option would be to keep a running camera at the nest to record the whole process of nest building. Having one placed inside will be difficult because even if we do work out a way to have lighting inside the nest, the light might be detrimental to the developing larva inside. Hence, it is likely not to be of any benefit.
I am totally smitten by the idea of having a sensor on the wasp body to track where it goes! We could get to know how far it travels to bring the prey and also to collect soil.
14 March 2023 1:30pm
@ShwetaMukundan I just saw this thesis published on tracking bees. Maybe you could use the same method?
30 March 2023 1:14pm
Hi @ShwetaMukundan,
this could be interesting for you:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abb0839
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwiHf2T9bLU
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/13/us/murder-hornet-track-washington-trnd/index.html
All from this working group:
https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~gshyam/
Monitoring airborne biomass
14 March 2023 10:30am
14 March 2023 1:34pm
Looks like you want to have a read of this thread:
Project introductions and updates | WILDLABS
Tell us about your project!If you are just starting out with autonomous camera traps for insects, or if you are a seasoned expert, this is the place to share your projects with the rest of the community. Tell us what your project is aiming to achieveWhere is it based and who is involved?If you are looking for advise or feedback be sure to make it clear what you would like to knowPlease come back once you have some results to share your successes and challenges!
wildlabsnet20 March 2023 2:44pm
Our project in very short is, setting up a sensor network for monitoring airborne biomass, mainly insects, birds and bats in near realtime, and to develop a forecast model to be used for mitigation with respect various types of human-wildlife conflicts (e.g. wind power, pesticide application, aviation). Our expertise is mainly in radar monitoring, but we aim on add insect camera information to be merged with the quantitative biomass measeurments by radar.
Computer Science student looking to work for wildlife
5 March 2023 10:04pm
14 March 2023 2:00pm
Great information! Thank you for sharing this. I actually have Masters in Zoology and have done some field work in Marine Conservation. Since then I have worked in Science education and eventually switched to Software Programming. My dream has always been to work in Conservation, however life happened and I had to give up on this pipe dream. I currently work as a Developer in a contractor role for the Federal Government. Would someone with my experience have an advantage in conservation Tech?
14 March 2023 2:58pm
I think the real demand in conservation tech is for transdisciplianry individuals. If you look at all the stand-out people in this space they are people who occupy multiple domains that are traditionally isolated. These are people who talk fluently in computer science and ecology, for example. Not only this, they are also people who create and imagine in ways that intertwin ideas and concepts across these domains. Its these people, thinking in these ways, that lead to innovations that really move us forward. Some of these people started out where you are now, having crossed domains through their career and then seeing opportunities to bring these skills together in imaginative ways.
14 March 2023 9:53pm
I couldn't agree more with both of these comments tom! I'm reading hundreds (literally hundreds) of applications for open WILDLABS roles at the moment, and the ones that stand out are those where it's really clear they're following genuine curiosity across different disciplines. If you're in conservation, it's the evidence of interest in tech (courses, projects, things you're trying and learning yourself). For tech, it's getting into conservation - all the things you mentioned.
Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s Annual Meeting 2023
20 February 2023 10:56pm
Download Now: A Best Practice Guide to Satellite Technologies for Tracking Wildlife
17 February 2023 10:29am
17 February 2023 11:34am
20 February 2023 9:34am
AI, sensors enhance wildfire detection
15 February 2023 10:27am
A pilot program in Oregon’s Willamette Valley will test how well artificial intelligence-enabled sensors can identify and characterize wildfires, which will help with responder resource allocation and boost community resilience.
Catch up with The Variety Hour: February 2023
14 February 2023 6:26pm
Hiring Full Stack Developer at Conservation X Labs
10 February 2023 5:35pm
Recommendations about online courses on GPS wildlife tracking?
8 February 2023 11:28am
8 February 2023 2:39pm
Hi Silvesru,
We're hosting a tutorial tomorrow about how to use GPS satellite tages to monitor giraffe - this could be a good starting point! If you check out our youtube channel we have a lot of other talks about selecting and using tags on different species. See the links below
Steph
10 February 2023 12:13pm
Animove is running a course this summer (costs) though also has free online materials (lots of videos, linked below). Requires advanced R-coding skills to start with, if that suits you.
https://streaming.uni-konstanz.de/talks-und-events/2022/animove-2022/
10 February 2023 1:12pm
Oh good call! I'll add that to our events calendar as well :)
Call for Proposals: 'Can Technology Save Biodiversity?'
10 February 2023 10:31am
Commercially available connected audio sensors
2 February 2023 3:08pm
2 February 2023 3:55pm
Hi!
I am not aware of any such connected loggers/recorders but they would be nice.
The AudioMoths have been revolutionary in providing audologging at a low cost but they take a lot of "data muling" (carrying SD cards in and out of the field sites) and swapping of batteries.
Cheers,
2 February 2023 7:50pm
Hi Lars, thanks for the response. We are using lots of Song Meter Micro's atm and they have proved to be resilient. Just need something which doesn't involve going on site regularly - but get the data off.
3 February 2023 7:04pm
Rainforest Connection's (RFCx) Guardian devices may be of interest. They are solar-powered and have connectivity options for Wifi, GSM and satellite transfer. They've previously been used for detecting e.g., gunshots or chainsaws (using edge computing) and then sending positive detections/alerts to folks on the ground. RFCx also hosts Arbimon, a free, no-code software platform that facilitates analysis of audio data as well. Happy to chat more if you'd like to talk further about it!
Job: Building a network of conservation tech across continents
2 February 2023 1:50pm
Consultancy opportunity: Wildlife monitoring specialist
31 January 2023 11:26am
Solar panels in the tropics
26 January 2023 12:28am
27 January 2023 1:23pm
Hi Tom,
I'm with Akiba, you have to test. A collaborator has deployed solar-augmented kit in secondary jungle and some of them got enough light, and others didn't, so it can work. The open circuit voltage of solar panels doesn't change a whole lot in dim light, but the current drops drastically. So you would choose an oversize panel of the same voltage (or a bit higher).
Thanks
27 January 2023 3:56pm
I've been intrigued by this topic. Thinking about ways you could use drones or some kind of launcher to deploy panels above the canopy. Sadly I live in the great white north so I have no way of testing any concepts. Maybe even some kind of solar balloon that could float above the canopy. Interesting design problem.
30 January 2023 10:10am
Hey Tom,
Since the output is dependent on a couple of factors such as the solar irradiance of the place, shading from the canopy, the type of solar panels (mono, poly or amorphous) and orientation of the panels, etc, I'd suggest you use a software to simulate the different parameters to get an almost accurate estimation of the output. You can try PVsyst- it has a free month trial (I haven't used it before but I hear it's great) or any other PV software :)
Advanced Field School in Computational Ecology
25 January 2023 2:54pm
Interview for Technologies in Conservation
24 November 2022 10:07am
16 January 2023 2:42pm
I'd be happy to chat with you if you wanted! My expertise is within passive acoustic monitoring particularly. The Conservation Tech Directory might be useful for you in identifying relevant actors within the space.
16 January 2023 5:16pm
Happy to contribute [email protected]
17 January 2023 5:12pm
My original background is in ecology and conservation, and am now in the elected leadership of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware which convenes researchers developing open source tech for science. I am not working on a specific piece of technology right now, but am happy to contribute some higher-level views for your interview if that helps.
New paper - Real-time alerts from AI-enabled camera traps using the Iridium satellite network: A case-study in Gabon, Central Africa
13 January 2023 12:12am
Sending real-time alerts from ecological sensors such as camera traps in areas with poor data connectivity is complex and involves integrating a large number of potentially complex hardware and software components. Our results demonstrate that these components can be successfully integrated to achieve reliable, near real-time alerts from camera traps under challenging field conditions.
New Paper - Evaluation of thermal imaging as a tool for assessing occupancy of enclosed nests
13 January 2023 12:06am
The authors "tested the use of a thermal imager to assess the occupancy of enclosed nests, using nest-box populations of small passerines. Based on a thermal image of each nest box, observers were able to predict nest-box occupancy with a combined success rate of 85.9%."
21 March 2023 2:47am
Here's a link about waterproofing in the marine environment, if you haven't already discovered Ed Mallon.