Wildlife tracking technologies have already massively advanced our understanding of the natural world, from uncovering previously mysterious migration patterns and key movement corridors to demonstrating the impacts of anthropogenic pressures and climate change. Recent advances in the development of technologies for collecting and transmitting biologging data have unlocked the potential for fine-scale data collection at a near-global scale, which when integrated with remotely sensed environmental data offers an unprecedented biological lens into ecosystem health and environmental change (Jetz et al. 2022).
New technologies on the horizon include small satellites like CubeSats, which are being investigated by NASA, the ICARUS Initiative's satellite system, and a variety of other ventures aiming to improve the coverage, accuracy, and capacity of wildlife tracking data collection. Combined with the increased availability of high-resolution environmental data and analytical developments in movement modeling, these advancements are empowering movement ecologists to ask previously unanswerable or unimaginable questions. It’s clear that this discipline sits at the precipice of major breakthroughs that could revolutionize our understanding of animal movement and the natural world.
Technologist, birder, photographer and mountain guide.
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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
I am biologist, I have studied wild life and ethnobiology at Amazon and caimans in Brazil
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- @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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Aarhus University
Biologist and Research Technician working with ecosystem monitoring and research at Zackenberg Research Station in Greenland
- 12 Resources
- 198 Discussions
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- @Rob_Appleby
- | He/him
Wild Spy
Whilst I love everything about WILDLABS and the conservation tech community I am mostly here for the badges!!
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- @Cris
- | he / him
Octophin Digital
Senior Developer at Octophin Digital and constant maker.
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- 5 Discussions
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- @tobiaspetri
- | him/his
data scientist/algorithmic dev - caught fire for movement ecology
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Department of Parks and Wildlife (Western Australia)
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- @HollyCormack
- | she/her
Biodiversity Knowledge Management Intern at the Biodiversity Consultancy Ltd
- 6 Resources
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- @TaliaSpeaker
- | She/her
WILDLABS & World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
I'm the WILDLABS Research Specialist at WWF-US
- 11 Resources
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Western Sydney University
Zoologist
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Hussey Labs seeks a senior post-doctoral researcher/senior research associate for movement ecology of Greenland halibut in the context of fisheries management across Baffin Bay-Davis Strait, Eastern Canadian Arctic.
13 March 2024
Catch up on the conservation tech discussions and events that happened during World Wildlife Day 2024!
7 March 2024
more affordable pricing for our software for the visualization and annotation of GPS and acceleration data
4 March 2024
Careers
Seeking a doctoral student to join the Move.inFormation research group in an exciting new project investigating the use of social information for optimal movement in the Andean condor.
12 February 2024
Research topic: Pathogens and predators represent the ultimate and ubiquitous threats to fitness. One of the defense counter-strategies is behavioural avoidance of the cues of infection risk (disgust) and predation risk...
10 February 2024
The primary focus of the research is to explore how red deer movements, space use, habitat selection and foraging behaviour change during the wolf recolonization process.
10 February 2024
The Wildlife Restoration Foundation is hiring a Conservation Technology Intern
8 February 2024
In the last article of my series examining how people find biologging tech for their projects, I spoke with Annkathrin Sharp, a Programme Officer at Fauna & Flora about how her experience choosing DIY Biologgers to...
14 December 2023
In the penultimate article in my series examining how people find biologging tech for their projects, I spoke with Matthew Stanton about developing custom biologging technology for studying koala behaviour.
7 December 2023
Article
In the third article examining how people find biologging tech for their projects, I spoke with Samantha Andrzejaczek with the Hopkins Marine Station and Jessica Rudd and Lucy Hawkes of the University of Exeter about...
30 November 2023
TagRanger® is a state-of-the-art wildlife finding, monitoring and tracking solution for research, conservation and environmental professionals. With superior configurability for logging data, reporting location and...
23 November 2023
In the second article in my series examining how people find biologging tech for their projects, I spoke with Yvan Satgé with the Clemson University to discuss how he sourced tags for studying the black-capped petrel.
23 November 2023
April 2024
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December 2023
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi Ruhan. Sent you a DM. It sounds interesting and possibly can intersect with our work in environmental and ecosystem monitoring. Thanks.Akiba |
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Acoustics, Biologging, Climate Change, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Earth Observation 101 Community, Remote Sensing & GIS, Software and Mobile Apps | 24 seconds ago | |
Fantastic Nigel! Bummer to hear that production has stopped, but glad you are getting their remaining boards! I know where to come when I need some!Cheers,Rob |
+7
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Biologging | 3 days 9 hours ago | |
Hi all, I am searching for marine species projects that monitor orientation/IMU and/or acceleration data... |
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Biologging, Marine Conservation | 5 days 13 hours ago | |
Hi everyone. Looking for an affordable DIY VHF receiver option. I'm working with an engineer to develop an automated audio playback system... |
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Biologging, Build Your Own Data Logger Community | 6 days 7 hours ago | |
Hi Gabriel,Our TagRanger Tags can be used for tracking turtles, we already have a tracking project commencing soon in South America for ~40 turtles...https://www.tagranger.... |
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Biologging | 1 week 5 days ago | |
That GNSS chip is indeed tiny! |
+15
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Biologging | 3 weeks 5 days ago | |
Thank you for the help! |
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Biologging, Emerging Tech | 1 month ago | |
We will be conducting in-person demos of our cutting-edge drone technology in the US this year! 🇺🇸 If you're interested in experiencing... |
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Biologging, Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS, Software and Mobile Apps | 1 month ago | |
I have a few suggestions Maggie. Hopefully one or more will be useful. Preprocessing - Compressing the data before transmission will reduce file size and reduce transmission... |
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Biologging | 1 month 1 week 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 | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
Hi Bill,I don't believe I will need them to be extremely accurate, but will need a good degree of accuracy for some behavioral classification and habitat use analyses. In regards... |
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Biologging | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
Hi @ThomasGray_Argos, @YvanSG and @hjayanto,Thank you all for getting in touch. Luckily the Cat Island Institute via YME Bahamas got in touch and prepared an expedition to... |
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Biologging | 1 month 3 weeks ago |
Leveraging Actuarial Skills for Conservation Impact
15 March 2024 12:31pm
15 March 2024 5:04pm
Hello again,
I’ve been reflecting further on our discussions and wanted to share another perspective that bridges our worlds.
The insurance industry, particularly in property and casualty, which is a multi-trillion-dollar market globally, is facing unprecedented challenges due to environmental changes. Traditionally, insurers have relied on historical data to forecast future risks. However, the rapid pace of climate change is rendering centuries of data increasingly irrelevant, putting immense pressure on the industry to adapt quickly.
This situation presents an interesting parallel to conservation efforts. Just as insurers are now considering investments to mitigate environmental risks to protect their financial interests, there's a growing recognition that protecting natural habitats and biodiversity is not just an ethical imperative but also a financial necessity. The urgency that insurers feel to adapt and invest in mitigating climate risks mirrors the urgent need for action within conservation to prevent irreversible damage to ecosystems like coral reefs, forests, and more.
I wonder if there's an opportunity for a collaborative approach where conservation projects can align with the insurance industry's need to invest in environmental protection as a means of safeguarding their own future. Such projects could offer innovative, data-driven solutions to conservation challenges while also providing insurers with viable strategies to reduce their exposure to environmental risks.
I’m fascinated by the potential for our fields to collaborate, leveraging the financial muscle of the insurance industry to support conservation efforts on a scale that could make a significant difference. What are your thoughts on this? Could there be a space for actuaries in designing conservation strategies that also serve to mitigate future financial risks for insurers?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and exploring potential synergies.
Best, Ruhan
19 March 2024 3:44am
Hi Ruhan.
Sent you a DM. It sounds interesting and possibly can intersect with our work in environmental and ecosystem monitoring.
Thanks.
Akiba
IgotU
29 February 2024 2:12pm
13 March 2024 6:12pm
I believe this is the bluetooth module:
It also looks like the same web shop sells the plain data logger (and even lists it as a 2022 version)!
And I believe @antoineede this is the solar version:
or this (no housing):
and here is the gateway:
although all of these are currently sold out on that site and I can't find them anywhere else...
14 March 2024 7:55pm
Hi Rob, Yes these are indeed the models. They are as reliable as the old originals. I have the GT120B's, G2S with/without solar and some GW's. Production has stopped and they won't be available in the future and I'm getting hold of their remaining boards. Have a big batch of GT120A's too which were only deployed once on a big seabird project which I will test at some stage and make available.
15 March 2024 1:01pm
Fantastic Nigel! Bummer to hear that production has stopped, but glad you are getting their remaining boards! I know where to come when I need some!
Cheers,
Rob
Senior Post-doctoral Researcher/Senior Research Associate Opportunity: Movement ecology of Greenland halibut
13 March 2024 2:00pm
IMU and orientation data for marine species
13 March 2024 9:12am
DIY VHF receivers?
12 March 2024 2:51pm
Here's what you missed at World Wildlife Day 2024
7 March 2024 9:02pm
15 March 2024 2:42pm
Need tips on best practices tracking turtles
4 March 2024 12:52pm
6 March 2024 1:24pm
Hi Gabriel,
Our TagRanger Tags can be used for tracking turtles, we already have a tracking project commencing soon in South America for ~40 turtles...
https://www.tagranger.com/
The Tags use LoRaWAN allowing you to communicate with your Tags in real time. As well as requesting current GPS locations from long distances away (20km Line of Sight) you can also use the integrated ranging tools which give you distance to your Tag in metres when you get closer.
Key features:
LoRaWAN (tested > 20km line of sight). Use a 'Finder' which is a handheld gateway or you can also use your own LoRaWAN network.
UWB ranging gives distance (in metres) to the Tag up to 150m away
Hybrid Ranging combines the equivalent of a VHF pinger from a few km away (line of sight) with the UWB ranging when you get closer
Log Download remotely using UWB radio
The Tag can last for very long lifetimes depending on how you configure it
Please drop me a line if you are interested in hearing more about this and how we could configure it best for your application.
Craig
Firetail - updated price model from 03/2024
4 March 2024 11:06am
non-invasive technique to apply GPS collars without catching?
14 June 2021 12:01pm
21 February 2024 11:13am
A lorawan based tracker here:
I would expect, but don't know, that a lorawan one should be able to have a longer range and lifetime based on the amount of power needed to reliably transmit the data.
21 February 2024 11:13am
A lorawan based tracker here:
I would expect, but don't know, that a lorawan one should be able to have a longer range and lifetime based on the amount of power needed to reliably transmit the data. Sorry, for some reason this posted twice, can't find a delete button.
21 February 2024 7:27pm
That GNSS chip is indeed tiny!
Data Logger Suggestions
31 January 2024 1:42pm
10 February 2024 2:19am
Hi Andrea,
The OpenLog Artemis might be an option. I haven't used one of these yet, but its what I immediately thought of. Built in real time clock and IMU that records to microSD. It has four 14-bit ADCs and I2C connectors for the 'Qwiic' or 'grove' sensor boards. I'm not sure if it has programmable on/off cycles with the clock but you may find an existing project that does this.
13 February 2024 4:29pm
Thank you for the help!
Seeking doctoral student to Join Move.inFormation research group for Andean condor biologging
12 February 2024 8:01pm
Wildlife Drones will be hosting in-person demos in the U.S.
12 February 2024 3:32am
Seeking advice for remotely retrieving high frequency acceleration data
28 January 2024 1:26am
28 January 2024 9:42am
Hi Maggie!
This sounds like a really interesting - and challenging project!
UHF is used for tranfer of acceleration data (along with other stuff like magnetometry and GNSS locations) by systems developed by companies like Milsar and TechnoSmart.
Ceres Wild uses satellite transfer over the GlobalStar but no raw acceleration data is transmitted.
I would fear the bandwidth would be too restrictive if you insist in using satellite based transfer of accelerometry.
Cheers,
Lars
29 January 2024 5:19pm
This sounds like a lot of fun!
The lowest cost satellite comm I know of is https://swarm.space/. It's pretty cool tech, but the data rates are quite low.
Do you have any idea how much data you need to move per day on average?
Perhaps LoRa would be an option? Here is an example of a LoRa device https://www.adafruit.com/product/4284
LoRa is not satellite, but it has quite a long range which may suffice? It is also pretty low data rate, but it is a good deal better than Swarm. The best thing about LoRa is that the end-point can be very low power, so battery life can be quite good.
If you know somewhere the crocs frequent, you might also be able to work something out with Bluetooth LE? Both LoRa and Bluetooth would require the installation of at least one base station. Lora's base station could be substantially further way.
11 February 2024 2:33am
I have a few suggestions Maggie. Hopefully one or more will be useful.
Preprocessing - Compressing the data before transmission will reduce file size and reduce transmission time.
Reduce data volume - I guess the animals are only active for some periods and a lot of the time are just "cruising along". So a useful strategy could be to only start recording when a certain threshold of acceleration occurs. And if you also buffer the data for say 10 seconds, you will get info about what's leading up to the activity. And adding a GPS module you will get some info on where the activity occurred plus movements prior. This will of course increase the data volume but only recording the most recent location will probably suffice as the location of the previous activity will tell you how far the animal moved.
Use LoRa instead of satellite - LoRa is well suited to this type of application. I saw in
that the home range of crocodiles is relatively small so although a forested area will limit LoRa performance, the range should be sufficient. You could also use multiple base stations if needed.
Of course eventually the data that has been recorded at the LoRa base station(s) will need to be collected. You could add a long range radio to the base station, or just collect the data 'manually'.
Hope this helps
PhD position: Foraging in the landscape of peril
10 February 2024 7:27am
Post-doc possition - Field spanning movement ecology, ecology of fear, bio-logging science, behavioral ecology, and ecological statistics
10 February 2024 7:20am
Bio-Logging Science Symposium
9 February 2024 3:59pm
Conservation Technology Intern - The Wildlife Restoration Foundation
8 February 2024 7:52pm
Passionate engineer offering funding and tech solutions pro-bono.
23 January 2024 12:06pm
26 January 2024 3:18pm
Hi Krasi! Greetings from Brazil!
That's a cool journey you've started! Congratulations. And I felt like theSearchLife resonates with the work I'm involved round here. In a nutshell, I live at the heart of the largest remaining of Atlantic forest in the planet - one of the most biodiverse biomes that exist. The subregion where I live is named after and bathed by the "Rio Sagrado" (Sacred River), a magnificent water body with a very rich cultural significance to the region (it has served as a safe zone for fleeing slaves). Well, the river and the entire bioregion is currently under the threat of a truly devastating railroad project which, to say the least is planned to cut through over 100 water springs!
In face of that the local community (myself included) has been mobilizing to raise awareness of the issue and hopefully stop this madness (fueled by strong international forces). One of the ways we've been fighting this is through the seeking of the recognition of the sacred river as an entity of legal rights, who can manifest itself in court, against such threats. And to illustrate what this would look like, I've been developing this AI (LLM) powered avatar for the river, which could maybe serve as its human-relatable voice. An existing prototype of such avatar is available here. It has been fine-tuned with over 20 scientific papers on the Sacred River watershed.
And right now myself and other are mobilizing to manifest the conditions/resources to develop a next version of the avatar, which would include remote sensing capacities so the avatar is directly connected to the river and can possibly write full scientific reports on its physical properties (i.e. water quality) and the surrounding biodiversity. In fact, myself and 3 other members of the WildLabs community have just applied to the WildLabs Grant program in order to accomplish that. Hopefully the results are positive.
Finally, it's worth mentioning that our mobilization around providing an expression medium for the river has been multimodal, including the creation of a shortfilm based on theatrical mobilizations we did during a fest dedicated to the river and its surrounding more-than-human communities. You can check that out here:
Let's chat if any of that catches your interest!
Cheers!
2 February 2024 1:22pm
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 Philipines which also requires water analytics so I can probably work on both projects at the same time.
Let's that have a call and discuss, will send you a pm with my contact details
There is a tech glitch and I don't get email notifications from here.
Questions regarding the use of solar panels to extend battery life of GPS collars
6 January 2024 8:44pm
24 January 2024 10:45am
With a Vectronic Vertex Plus 2D collar, 32Hz 3D acceleration and 15min position fix intervals you can expect between 3-6 months of lifetime using Iridium as position transfer.
This project seem to be using both 2D and 3D sized collars on lions:
https://www.vectronic-aerospace.com/projects/#KopeLion
28 January 2024 10:27pm
Lars,
As always, your insights are great! The GPS Plus X battery life calculator is great! I've downloaded it and have been toying around with it, very convenient when thinking about sampling schedules. Curious as to why more tech developers don't incorporate something similar into their own programming/analysis software. Very useful.
I've got a few meetings set up with a couple different tech developers, but may reach to Vectronic here. At first glance, their collars seem great! I appreciate the recommendations.
I must admit, I am not well versed in Python, but I am looking into something that wold be the R equivalent. If I don't have much luck, I may try and take a look at how that package was made in Python and attempt to recreate it in R.
You're the best Lars! Thanks!
Cheers,
Travis
28 January 2024 10:42pm
Hi Bill,
I don't believe I will need them to be extremely accurate, but will need a good degree of accuracy for some behavioral classification and habitat use analyses. In regards to the solar, tracking the solar cycle is a great suggestion. I have also considered having some thresholds programmed in the accelerometer to power off both sensors during periods of sleep/rest in order to conserve battery life. I did this same thing in my last study for the GPS only, so there wouldn't be instances where the trackers continued to try and unsuccessfully acquire GPS fixes while the bats where inside their caves resting. After the bat's surge axis dropped into the -1 and there was 10 unsuccessful GPS fix attempts in a row, the GPS powered down.
Thanks for the suggestions and insights Bill!
Best,
Travis
Cat Island, Bahamas biologger recovery
7 December 2023 9:57pm
12 January 2024 4:07pm
Were you guys able to recover the tag? @Alasdair
17 January 2024 6:05pm
Hi Alasdair,
I am also curious with the result, were you able to recover the tag? Also is there any that ended up in Indonesia sea? We would love to help the recovery if any.
Cheers,
Dhanu
23 January 2024 2:37pm
Hi @ThomasGray_Argos, @YvanSG and @hjayanto,
Thank you all for getting in touch. Luckily the Cat Island Institute via YME Bahamas got in touch and prepared an expedition to recover it. They couldn't access the beach during the first attempt, but a second attempt is planned. I'll hopefully be able to recover it shortly.
Thanks again,
Alasdair
Open-source kinetic energy harvesting collar - Kinefox
1 November 2023 5:31pm
17 January 2024 7:45pm
This is super cool!
I was wondering if the development will further touch marine or aquatic animals, make it like water wheel (even might give burden to aerodynamic). Thank you for sharing!
Best,
Dhanu
20 January 2024 7:16am
Not a water wheel but equally cool.
20 January 2024 9:10pm
Super cool! thank you for sharing!
How to build my VHF tags from the scratch?
9 January 2019 10:04am
29 December 2022 10:43am
@Tinytx Hello I am interested in details please contact me by email [email protected] thank you
12 January 2024 11:07am
@Tinytx Hi, I am very interested in detail regarding this transmitter, would you mind sharing the information you have, [email protected]
Many thanks
Sam
12 January 2024 1:25pm
Wow! So impressive! Being old enough to precede the existence of personal computers these are the things of my dreams back then :)
What is your favorite package or software for visualizing animal tracking data?
12 September 2023 6:52pm
29 December 2023 11:09pm
30 December 2023 2:32pm
It was indeed recorded and can be viewed here:
Data Viz Inspo for the Holidays: December 20, 2023 (youtube.com)
Cheers,
Lars
31 December 2023 8:03pm
Appreciate that Lars!
Semi-automated prediction of behavioral states in wild understudied King vultures (Sarcoramphus papa)
20 December 2023 1:34pm
For the current e-obs newsletter, Chris Beirne and I have summarized our previous work on the annotation of King vultures in Costa Rica.
Seeking Host Organisations for Travel Scholarship Application
19 December 2023 12:54am
20 December 2023 3:07am
Hi Eva,
Me and my colleagues run a small NGO based on Yogyakarta in Indonesia, although our projects are spread around the country. One of our active project is working with the movement ecology of Sunda gharials in Berbak-Sembilang National Park. One of the other is for Malayan Giant Turtle conservation using one-plan approach, which we are planning to start in situ phase. We can't give you promise about anything, but are able to be the host organization and would love to talk the opportunity!
Cheers,
Dhanu
Which market-available microphones, accelerometers and GIS sensors for dogs / pets ?
7 September 2023 3:21pm
6 December 2023 2:03pm
good to know that GPS coordinates can be used to sync the time.
Does GPS resolution allow to a desired time resolution (e.g. seconds) ? Does choice of time resolution significantly depends on the physiology of the animal (e.g. time of re-action to stimuli, hence less than a second) or for most animal communication and animal behaviour is it enough above a second?
7 December 2023 7:03am
Hi Luigi!
It is not the coordinates but the information from the "pulse per second" from the GPS which is used for the time sync.
Have a look at
17 December 2023 3:02pm
I am not an acoustics person but train and deploy canines in the field. Are you looking for something that records sniff rate and patterns? For GPS I just use a Garmin collar system Altha 100. There is a Conservation Canine group that might be worth asking your question in.
Bear-dar: Updates from the Field
15 December 2023 11:58am
Polar Bear International chat about bear-dar and burr on fur in this video on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfL42Wqctkk
How to Choose a Biologger - Mapping Goat Movement with Annkathrin Sharp
14 December 2023 3:34pm
Data Viz Inspo December 20th
12 December 2023 12:03pm
15 March 2024 4:34pm
Hi Steph,
Thanks so much for welcoming me to WildLabs and for posing a question that really gets to the heart of what I believe I can offer to the community.
Actuaries, by trade, are experts in risk management and financial forecasting, using data from the past to predict future trends and outcomes. But it's how this expertise can apply to conservation that's truly exciting to me.
For instance, consider coral reefs, vital ecosystems facing existential threats from climate change and human activities. An actuary could help by modelling the intricate dynamics between environmental factors and reef health, assessing the financial implications of their decline not just on local communities, but globally. This is similar to how we model financial risks and potential losses due to environmental changes in the insurance industry. It’s about understanding the value of conservation, not just in ecological terms, but also in clear financial language that can speak to both the public sector and private enterprises.
The innovative work within this community, from Sara Beery's advancements in computer vision to Ben Mirin's creative engagement with wildlife sounds, showcases the power of interdisciplinary approaches. I am in awe of these efforts and am keen to see where someone with my background in predictive analytics and financial impact assessment can fit in.
As a newcomer eager to contribute, I'm particularly interested in exploring projects where we can apply actuarial science to optimize conservation funding or model the economic benefits of preserving ecosystems like coral reefs. These models can help make a compelling case to stakeholders about the urgency of conservation efforts, bridging the gap between ecological necessity and financial strategy.
I’m here not just to bring my skills to the table, but to learn from all of you and find where I can best contribute to the incredible work being done here.
Looking forward to finding my place in this inspiring community.
Best regards,
Ruhan