WILDLABS logo

WILDLABS logo

Global Feed

There's always something new happening on WILDLABS. Keep up with the latest from across the community through the Global view, or toggle to My Feed to see curated content from groups you've joined. 

Header image: Laura Kloepper, Ph.D.

event

The Variety Hour: April 2024

Stephanie O'Donnell

18 April 2024 2:50pm

 Join us this month to hear about balancing classical biodiversity monitoring with emerging bioacoustics and AI, a new report about bridging biodiversity and business, using passive acoustic monitoring to evaluate...

2
See full post
article

Become a WILDLABS group manager!

Alex Rood

17 April 2024 7:36pm

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!

1
See full post
discussion

WILDLABS AWARDS 2024 - BumbleBuzz: automatic recognition of bumblebee species and behaviour from their buzzing sounds 

Jeremy Froidevaux

12 April 2024 8:37am

The 'BumbleBuzz' team (@JeremyFroidevaux, @DarrylCox, @RichardComont, @TBFBumblebee, @KJPark, @yvesbas, @ilyassmoummad, @nicofarr) is very pleased to have been awarded the...

2 5
Carly Batist

12 April 2024 8:41pm

Super great to see that there will be more work on insect ecoacoustics! So prevalent in practically every soundscape, but so often over-looked. Can't wait to follow this project as it develops!

See full post
discussion

Camera Trap storage and analyzing tools

Vasilios Kosmakos

16 April 2024 5:15pm

Hello everyone I am a current Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay and am working with a local national park to create a camera trap project. A large part of the project is focused...

2 1
Dan Morris

16 April 2024 7:17pm

I don't have an easy solution or a specific recommendation, but I try to track all the systems that do at least one of those things here:

https://agentmorris.github.io/camera-trap-ml-survey/#camera-trap-systems-using-ml

That's a list of camera trap analysis / data management systems that use AI in some way, but in practice, just about every system available now uses AI in some way, so it's a de facto list of tools you might want to at least browse.

AFAIK there are very few tools that are all of (1) a data management system, (2) an image review platform, and (3) an offline tool.  If "no Internet access" still allows for access to a local network (e.g. WiFi within the ranger station), Camelot is a good starting point; it's designed to have an image database running on a local network.  TRAPPER has a lot of the same properties, and @ptynecki (who works on TRAPPER) is active here on WILDLABS.

Ease of use is in the eye of the beholder, but I think what you'll find is that any system that has to actually deal with shared storage will require IT expertise to configure, but systems like Camelot and TRAPPER should be very easy to use from the perspective of the typical users who are storing and reviewing images every day.

Let us know what you decide!

Carly Batist

17 April 2024 1:55am

Can't beat Dan's list! 

I would just add that if you're interested in broader protected area management, platforms like EarthRanger and SMART are amazing, and can integrate with camera-trapping (amongst other) platforms. 

See full post
discussion

Welcome to WILDLABS!

Stephanie O'Donnell

29 October 2015 5:16pm

Hello and welcome to the WILDLABS community! With 6,000 members and counting, we want to get to know you a little better. In a couple of...

222 2
Latifa Athumani

16 April 2024 2:27pm

Hello everyone!

I'm thrilled to join this dynamic community of innovators and explorers. My name is Latifa, and I bring passion for adventure, a love for nature and a deep curiosity for the wild world around us.

With a background in Environmental Disaster Management, I'm excited to join and collaborate with each of you. As for now am working with a local NGO in Tanzania (LEAD FOUNDATION). I'm eager to contribute my skills and learn more from everyone.

Together let's embark on an incredible journey of exploration, discovery, and conservation in making a positive impact.

Best regards Latifa

See full post
article

InConversation: Season 1*New Episode*

Esther Githinji

16 April 2024 1:38pm

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...

2
See full post
discussion

WILDLABS AWARDS 2024 - TimeLord: A low-cost, low-power and low-difficulty timer board to control battery-powered devices

Rob Appleby

5 April 2024 3:29pm

Hi everyone,@Alasdair from Arribada Initiative and I are so pleased to announce our TimeLord project as one of the lucky winners of this year's WILDLABS Awards. What is TimeLord...

14 14
Alasdair Davies

16 April 2024 9:34am

Thanks @Freaklabs, I think you'll really enjoy getting involved with this too as we're looking for input from makers in the community to get the most from the approach and to capture features and usability ideas from a large number of people.

I've a new modular drop-off tag build using @Rob_Appleby's original SensorDrop board that I think would be great for this project too to see if we can drop different compartments, or do various different timed events with the one TimeLord board.

Most importantly, we have to make it play a MIDI version of the DoctorWho theme song when you arm the device. That has to be the #1 feature if you ask me!

 

See full post
discussion

Integrating AI models with camera trap management applications

Ed Miller

25 March 2024 7:47pm

Hi All, As part of extending the work we are doing at the BearID Project, we are thinking about integrating the models we are developing into open source camera trap project. This...

19 3
Emily Dorne

9 April 2024 1:37am

Would also add zamba and Zamba Cloud into the list of tools for running AI models (the former being with Python code, the latter being with a GUI). For the reader at home (since I know Dan knows), these are tools for species classification on camera trap videos. We've got pretrained models trained on over 250,00 videos covering 32 African forest species, 11 European species, as well as a blank / nonblank detector.

There is also the ability to train your own models for new species or locations. And we're super excited to extend this custom model training functionality to support camera trap images thanks to our WILDLABS award (more details here).

Heinrich Schulz

13 April 2024 4:47am

Thanks Dan for explaining and clarifying, and Ed and all others for contributing. As a somewhat technical person (IT business consultant) with no formal environmental education, but with a passion to understand and protect the environment, this is a topic I've been exploring and struggling with...

There are really skilled technical experts in this community that love to design and improve solutions, but it's not always easy for potential end users to understand and use said solutions without significant learning curves. And often solutions are designed from a technical perspective, and does not always consider end users' level of experience, knowledge and actual on the ground needs. This is not just a problem in the concervation technology space, but overall tech industry.

To clarify this for myself, I would love to see a summary of how conservation tech solutions fit into a camera trap process that include the following areas - and especially which tools fit where:

  1. Plan/Design: scope, requirements, timeframes, data needs, overall outcome. Also influences the selection of tools to use in the overall process.
  2. Capture/execute : both hardware (cameras, audio recorders, sensors, etc), and software (managing hardware lifecycle tracking, capturing trail camera data e.g. image file management, etc) solutions
  3. Process/Analyse: solutions for initial processing/culling, detailed analysis, and anything classification related
  4. Present/Display: how best to communicate, display and present the data gathered, analysed and classified...

If there is a resource that already do this comparison and sumarization of tools' capabilities please help me find it - otherwise it might be topic to be explored further...

 

See full post
discussion

Seeking Knowledge/Resources about Soil Monitoring

Frida Ruiz

10 April 2024 9:53pm

Hi everyone! I am currently gathering research for my undergraduate senior project, which I hope to address by through robotics and technology. I am writing here to see if there...

3 1
Akiba

12 April 2024 2:32pm

Hi Frida. 

We are currently doing soil monitoring for ecological restoration in Australia with an organization called Bush Heritage Australia. It's been ongoing for about four years and it's in collaboration with BHA and also Monash University's soil science department. There's more info about the project here:

 

Frida Ruiz

14 April 2024 12:21am

Hi! If you wouldn't mind, would we be able to exchange emails and connect? I'd love to have a short discussion and get some feedback regarding my senior project 

See full post
discussion

Wildlabs PPWC course

CathyNj

14 April 2024 11:12am

Just finished my PPWC training courtesy of Wildlabs. Will do much better in my greening initiative from new lessons learned.Thank you so much Wildlabs!

1
See full post
discussion

non-invasive technique to apply GPS collars without catching?

Antoine Ede

14 June 2021 12:01pm

Dear all, I was wondering if they were "passive" techniques to "install" GPS collar or other GPS devices on a terrestrial animal ? Just a discussion...

28 0
Lars Holst Hansen

2 April 2024 7:18pm

Not sure what happened to the excerpt I wanted to post. Apperently the Alaska study authors had some scepticism themselves.

I would be extremely worried about catching wrong species in many cases - with potentially detrimental effects.

Kristie Gill

12 April 2024 2:17pm

My study in particular is only looking at species that go under fence holes in Southern Africa. The hole determines species size and juveniles for these species are so small the collar would just fall off. I think a proper study could really determine these collars could be useful if the right study species and setting location was determined. 

See full post
careers

Post Doctoral Research Assistant at ZSL

Alex Rood

9 April 2024 7:03pm

ZSL is looking for an enthusiastic research scientist to join the multidisciplinary team and help deliver a project in Wales to better understand the ecology of tope sharks (Galeus galeus) in North Cardigan Bay and the...

0
See full post