Group

Biologging / Feed

Real-time tracking of animal movements is enabling more effective and efficient wildlife monitoring for management, security, and research. As devices get smaller and prices drop, the possibilities for using biologging on a larger scale have grown, and so have the possibilities for increasing customisation to meet specific research needs. Likewise, real-time tracking of illegal wildlife trade, timber, and fish products as they move from source to consumer can shed light on trafficking routes and actors, as well as support enforcement, making tracking gear a powerful tool beyond the field.

discussion

Leveraging Actuarial Skills for Conservation Impact

Hello Wildlabs Community,I'm an experienced actuary with a deep passion for wildlife and conservation. With over 15 years in the insurance industry, I've honed my skills in data...

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Hi Ruhan, 

Welcome to our community! Can I ask what might be a basic question... but I'm guessing if I have it, other people will also? 

So what exactly does an actuary do? I understand it's working with data and risk analsyis, but could you attempt to translate over to our world with some tangible examples? Like... what sort of project or challenge could you imagine helping with? What would be your dream person to hear from? 

Steph 


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

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

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discussion

IgotU

Hi,I guess a number of you have used these in the past. They are very good GPS loggers and very affordable. have been working with the manufacturer and tested a new model with...

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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.

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discussion

DIY VHF receivers?

Hi everyone. Looking for an affordable DIY VHF receiver option. I'm working with an engineer to develop an automated audio playback system that will play pre-recorded sounds from...

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discussion

Need tips on best practices tracking turtles

Hi, I am working on a project that aims to track the movement of turtles in the Amazon. I would like to get tips mainly on what would be the best equipment regarding...

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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

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discussion

non-invasive technique to apply GPS collars without catching?

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...

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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.

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discussion

Data Logger Suggestions

Hello, I have been using a data logger in my tag that doesn't seem to be working for our needs any longer. I was wondering if anyone might be able to suggest one they use and...

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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. 

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discussion

Seeking advice for remotely retrieving high frequency acceleration data 

Hi everyone! I'm currently working with a small team to develop and deploy custom affordable trackers for crocodiles, and I'm wondering if anyone has advice regarding data...

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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

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.

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

 

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discussion

Passionate engineer offering funding and tech solutions pro-bono.

My name is Krasi Georgiev and I run an initiative focused on providing funding and tech solutions for stories with a real-world impact. The main reason is that I am passionate...

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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:



 

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/850179762



 

Let's chat if any of that catches your interest!

Cheers!

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.

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discussion

Questions regarding the use of solar panels to extend battery life of GPS collars

Hey!If anyone here has had any experience using solar panels to extend the battery life of their tracking collars, I would love to hear from you! How effective was the...

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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

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

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discussion

Cat Island, Bahamas biologger recovery

Hi everyone,A random request to see if any WILDLAB members may live in, or near the Bahamas on the off chance that you could help to recover one of our plastic...

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Were you guys able to recover the tag? @Alasdair 

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

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

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discussion

Open-source kinetic energy harvesting collar - Kinefox

Hello everyone,I ran across an article today (at the bottom) that talks about an open-source, kinetic energy harvesting collar ("Kinefox"). It sounds pretty neat...anyways,...

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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

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discussion

How to build my VHF tags from the scratch?

Hi all, I was wondering if anybody has experience in building VHF-tags from the scratch. I couldn't find useful instructions online, so maybe anybody wants to share own...

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discussion

What is your favorite package or software for visualizing animal tracking data?

Hi all,I manage a large research collaborative focused on conservation applications of animal tracking data (Smithsonian's Movement of Life Initiative).  I'm interested in...

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discussion

Seeking Host Organisations for Travel Scholarship Application

Hi all,I'm Eva, a final year undergraduate studying Joint Honours Biology and Geography at the University of St Andrews.  I've recently joined the WildLabs community in...

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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

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discussion

Which market-available microphones, accelerometers and GIS sensors for dogs / pets ?

I have conducted an MSc thesis in data-science applied on bioacoustics data, and wish to carry on some experiments on my own now, using domestic environment as a lab.I am looking...

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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? 
 

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. 

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discussion

Data Viz Inspo December 20th

I feel that stuff sometimes gets overlooked in the other channels than Discussions.Maybe it is only me! ...In any case, this online event looks super insteresting: (and my...

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