Camera traps have been a key part of the conservation toolkit for decades. Remotely triggered video or still cameras allow researchers and managers to monitor cryptic species, survey populations, and support enforcement responses by documenting illegal activities. Increasingly, machine learning is being implemented to automate the processing of data generated by camera traps.
A recent study published showed that, despite being well-established and widely used tools in conservation, progress in the development of camera traps has plateaued since the emergence of the modern model in the mid-2000s, leaving users struggling with many of the same issues they faced a decade ago. That manufacturer ratings have not improved over time, despite technological advancements, demonstrates the need for a new generation of innovative conservation camera traps. Join this group and explore existing efforts, established needs, and what next-generation camera traps might look like - including the integration of AI for data processing through initiatives like Wildlife Insights and Wild Me.
Group Highlights:
Our past Tech Tutors seasons featured multiple episodes for experienced and new camera trappers. How Do I Repair My Camera Traps? featured WILDLABS members Laure Joanny, Alistair Stewart, and Rob Appleby and featured many troubleshooting and DIY resources for common issues.
For camera trap users looking to incorporate machine learning into the data analysis process, Sara Beery's How do I get started using machine learning for my camera traps? is an incredible resource discussing the user-friendly tool MegaDetector.
And for those who are new to camera trapping, Marcella Kelly's How do I choose the right camera trap(s) based on interests, goals, and species? will help you make important decisions based on factors like species, environment, power, durability, and more.
Finally, for an in-depth conversation on camera trap hardware and software, check out the Camera Traps Virtual Meetup featuring Sara Beery, Roland Kays, and Sam Seccombe.
And while you're here, be sure to stop by the camera trap community's collaborative troubleshooting data bank, where we're compiling common problems with the goal of creating a consistent place to exchange tips and tricks!
Header photo: ACEAA-Conservacion Amazonica
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
Freaklabs
I'm an engineer and product designer working on wildlife conservation technology.
- 0 Resources
- 268 Discussions
- 13 Groups
Creative director and artist in love with nature and the use of technology for wildlife conservation.
- 0 Resources
- 7 Discussions
- 1 Groups
Addax Data Science
Wildlife ecologist with a special interest in machine learning
- 0 Resources
- 8 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- @snapshot_serengeti
- | she/her
Fauna & Flora
Conservation, Innovation, Education
- 7 Resources
- 21 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Systems Engineer at Edge Impulse, experiencce with hands-on edge machine learning for wildlife conservation
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @StephODonnell
- | She / Her
WILDLABS
I'm the Community Manager at WILDLABS
- 150 Resources
- 646 Discussions
- 30 Groups
Founder & Director of Tech 4 Conservation
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 3 Groups
DIY electronics for behavioral field biology
- 1 Resources
- 46 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @Gathoni
- | Her/she
PhD Candidate at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Ecologist with a passion for wildlife conservation and conservation technology with foundational training in BSc and MSc Rangeland Management (Ecology option). Current project: Use of acoustics to monitor ecosystem restoration.
- 3 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 7 Groups
Software engineer
- 0 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 3 Groups
Article
You’re invited to the WILDLABS Variety Hour, a monthly event that connects you to conservation tech's most exciting projects, research, and ideas. We can't wait to bring you a whole new season of speakers and...
22 March 2024
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (SNZCBI) is seeking two postdoctoral fellows to engage more directly with identifying conservation metrics for vertebrate communities and populations.
14 March 2024
Catch up on the conservation tech discussions and events that happened during World Wildlife Day 2024!
7 March 2024
EcoAssist introduces a free African species identification model for camera trap images, capable of recognising 30 species.
5 March 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
Article
An update on @Alasdair and @adanger24's HWC project
11 January 2024
The Conservation Technology Laboratory within the Population Sustainability department is seeking two fellows for summer 2024.
9 January 2024
Outstanding chance for a motivated and ambitious individual to enhance their current project support skills by engaging with a diverse array of exciting projects in the field of biodiversity science.
11 December 2023
Article
Read our interview with Clementine Uwamahoro, African Parks’ Country Manager in Conservation Technology overlooking technology operations for both Akagera National Park and Nyungwe National Park.
29 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
Lisanne Petracca is hiring TWO technicians within the SPEC Lab Ocelot Research Program to start January 17, 2024.
16 November 2023
With the rising threats to biodiversity such as wildlife crime, climate change and human-wildlife conflict today, wildlife monitoring technologies have become vital to study movement ecology, behaviour patterns, changes...
25 October 2023
April 2024
event
October 2024
November 2023
event
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ah, okay that is helpful. Great question. I'm not sure the current status of camelot - @cshclm @heidi_h, maybe you could provide an update? The two projects that came to... |
|
Camera Traps | 21 hours 29 minutes ago | |
Hello everyone, I'm interested in gathering insights on how the behavior of different species impacts the development and efficacy of... |
|
Biologging, Acoustics, Camera Traps, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Marine Conservation | 5 days 13 hours ago | |
Hi @lucianofoglia Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the community. What you've touched on resonates with a number of users and developers (looking at you @Rob_Appleby)... |
|
Emerging Tech, Camera Traps, Conservation Tech Training and Education | 5 days 23 hours ago | |
Hi Andrew! Great to hear your friend, Scott working in Indonesia! I bet he is working on east region with lot of cool monitor lizards!I use Mavic 2 as well for my crocodile... |
|
Camera Traps | 4 weeks ago | |
This is great, thank you so much @zhongqimiao ! I will check it out and looking forward for the upcoming tutorial! |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Open Source Solutions | 1 month ago | |
Ah yes. I didn’t notice that. Indeed it’s “near infrared”, 850nm lighting. |
|
Camera Traps, Marine Conservation | 1 month ago | |
I've used AA rechargeable almost exclusively for many years now. I try to get rechargeables sourced from Japan (Panasonic Eneloop and Fujitsu), but have also used Eveready ... |
+18
|
Camera Traps | 1 month ago | |
Thanks for the link, Amanda. The price of $900 is a bit too steep for me, but at least I now know a bit better what you meant with a power analyser.I can't remember either what I... |
|
Camera Traps | 1 month 1 week ago | |
Perfect thanks! I am still a novice using Python but my wife can help me! |
+6
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 1 month 1 week ago | |
This is a great starting point - thanks for the help |
|
Camera Traps | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
Hi Amit,The most important thing is that the livestock owners contact you as soon as possible after finding the carcass. We commonly do two things if they contact us on the same... |
|
Camera Traps, AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Early Career, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Protected Area Management Tools | 1 month 3 weeks 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... |
|
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 3 weeks ago |
Project Spotlight: Monitoring tropical freshwater fish in Kakadu National Park with drones, underwater cameras and AI
12 July 2023 3:40pm
2023 Canon Oceania Grants - Environmental Grant AU$5,000
7 July 2023 1:47pm
What does "EK" stand for (as in "100EK113")?
4 July 2023 7:00pm
5 July 2023 12:14am
Most trailcam manufacturers use OEM camera designs from factories that cater to many different applications and companies. Most likely, Bushnell didn't design the camera circuitry and write the software, hence what you're seeing is the vanilla software from the reference design created by the image processor manufacturer used by the camera. My guess is the EK stands for "Evaluation Kit" and the design firm that designed the circuitry for the Bushnell trailcam didn't change the software for the file naming.
5 July 2023 3:58am
I like your hypothesis. I'm going with that until someone demonstrates otherwise. It's less fun than finding out that Elsa Kramer's birthday was January 13th (or November 3rd?), but it seems plausible. Reconyx went the extra 0.00001 miles, I guess, to change one string in the code.
New Add-ons for Mbaza AI
4 July 2023 12:00pm
Camera Trap Data Normalization Help
31 May 2023 2:45pm
16 June 2023 5:36pm
Hi Michelle,
it would be good to get some more information on your project. What question are you trying to answer? How many cameras did you have deployed? How many different study sites/haul-out areas are there?
16 June 2023 6:35pm
Absolutely, I am happy to provide it. Our objectives are 1) to improve the understanding of local and seasonal haul-out patterns, and the numbers of seals hauled out during daylight hours; 2) to investigate any haul-out patterns in relation to environmental factors.
We had 10 different cameras set up at two different survey areas (8 at one location and 2 at another). We are studying the two survey areas separately. At one of the locations there are 8 different survey sites within the area where seals haul-out, at the other location, there are 2 different survey sites within the area.
So far we have completed 3 survey seasons as well.
Let me know if there is anything else I can provide!
27 June 2023 6:03pm
Also, for more help, here is the link to the website where an old report is shown. Navy Marine Species Monitoring :: Time-lapse Camera Surveys of Pinnipeds in Southeastern Virginia
New collaboration network - Computer vision for insects
26 June 2023 2:36pm
Overview: Depth Sensing Technologies for Camera Traps
9 November 2021 3:06pm
22 February 2022 2:24pm
For the more computationally-inclined, the Project Zamba software can also be used as a python package and the project codebase is fully available on GitHub.
22 February 2022 2:24pm
@hikinghack @Nycticebus-scientia We just ran an open-source competition on this exact question! DrivenData is a small group of data scientists, and we partnered with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) and the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) to compile enough hand-labeled data to apply machine learning to the depth problem. In your original post, this falls under the AI Prediction Based category. The code behind all of the top-performing models is freely available on GitHub. We're hoping to make these freely available in the future in the a more user-friendly way.
@JHughes to your point about motion sensor camera traps being continuously set off -our free, open-source web application called Zamba Cloud uses machine learning to automatically sort videos by either what animal they contain or whether they are blank. You just upload a set of videos, and the web application will output a list of labels for each video! This may not address the battery drainage problem, but can help with filtering out blank videos and identifying which actually captured animals.
25 June 2023 10:33pm
(apologies for joining this thread late) Has anyone tried using the LIDAR in one of the newer iPhones so-equipped as a trail cam trigger? (e.g. iPhone12 Pro), perhaps in conjunction with a nueral network that processes the depth map looking for animal triggers? (I know this is liable to be a power-hungry trigger, for now, just looking at a proof of concept)
Osa Conservation: A Multi-Tech Toolbox of Solutions
22 June 2023 10:42am
The Wildlife Society Conference
19 June 2023 5:59am
Camera Kits available for new Snapshot USA Participants
14 June 2023 2:20pm
16 June 2023 7:39pm
This is such a cool idea! We need an aussie/international version!
Best of luck with this year's survey!
Rob
Catch up with The Variety Hour: June 2023
16 June 2023 11:43am
Sustained Effort: Out with the New, In with the Old
14 June 2023 10:00am
Cuddelink Camera Issue?
12 June 2023 4:33pm
Camera-trapping provides new insights on scent marking in the large-antlered muntjac
12 June 2023 5:30am
New insights into the behavior of the large-antlered muntjac, a critically endangered deer species in Southeast Asia, are revealed through camera-trapping, shedding light on scent marking as a communication method used by these secretive ungulates and its potential role in territoriality and mate assessment.
Wildlife Monitoring Engineer
8 June 2023 4:54pm
Camera Traps to monitor direct seeding reforestation
5 June 2023 10:17am
Looking for AI volunteer positions
24 May 2023 5:41am
24 May 2023 3:45pm
Hi Donya! You might check out the Conservation Tech Directory to see what projects/organizations/tools best align with your interests and skills.
Scientists step up hunt for ‘Asian unicorn’, one of world’s rarest animals
18 May 2023 6:25pm
The saola, also known as the 'Asian unicorn,' remains one of the world's most elusive and rare animals. Conservation organizations, such as the Saola Working Group, operating in Laos and Vietnam, are conducting extensive searches using camera traps and exploring new methods like training dogs to detect saola signs and developing rapid DNA field test kits in order to save this remarkable creature from extinction.
Camera trap pics of rare species in Vietnam raise conservation hopes
18 May 2023 6:17pm
Camera traps installed in Vietnam's Phong Dien Nature Reserve have yielded remarkable images of rare and endangered species, igniting optimism for biodiversity conservation in the region. Among the captivating photographs are sightings of muntjac deer, the crested argus, Annamite striped rabbit, and Owston's palm civet. The camera trap images serve as a testament to the presence of these elusive creatures, fueling hope for their conservation.
Mbaza AI recognized by UNESCO & new team member
17 May 2023 8:49pm
What are the waterfowls?
14 May 2023 3:26pm
Collar Tracking vs. Camera Traps for Monitoring Mexican Wolves
5 May 2023 9:08pm
This article compares and contrasts the success of their wolf monitoring efforts with both collars and camera traps. The camera traps were intended to help researchers identify individual wolves within the population, but they experienced difficulties identifying both uncollared wolves and those with marked collars.
Camera Trap Data Management Survey
3 May 2023 10:28pm
AI Animal Identification Models
30 March 2023 5:01am
20 April 2023 12:53am
Thanks Dan, that is very helpful. No zebras here but I did see four deer wandering through the streets this morning. Quite wild at times here!
I am totally willing to try an image classifier if it reports multiple objects it identifies in a scene. I will give this a go.
I think 1 fps would be quite acceptable actually, and in some perspective actually advantageous in reducing how much data is getting logged.
I tried upgrading my existing object detector model to YOLOv8 following the links you sent, but I don't think it is possible to upgrade the model on the framework I'm using (ml5js) so I think I will have to try a different framework.
Thank you.
25 April 2023 2:08pm
Hi David
It appears that you have been looking for existing models, however, most existing models are trained on either COCO or some other very generic dataset. So, if you want to identify just animals, you may be better off training your own model. It seems no one in this thread mentioned yet that it is possible to do transfer learning on existing models, which keeps most of the "visual part" of the model as is, but just changes the classification part so it can identify other things. This way you can take an existing model trained on COCO and in a fraction of the time it takes to train a full model, just retrain that for your animals.
Also have a look at your requirements for the inferencing stage. Some models take long in training but are superfast in inference and others are slow in both cases but very accurate, etc. If you want semi-realtime inferencing, you are probably looking at single shot detectors (SSD), and not RCNNs.
26 April 2023 7:34pm
Thanks Bas! I'll look into SSD vs RCNNs, I'd never heard of an SSD.
Video: Virginia Tech tracking bobcats to preserve wildlife
26 April 2023 2:45pm
Quick feature of Virgina Tech project using camera traps and biologgers to track bobcats, collecting data to inform human-wildlife coexistance efforts
Congo Basin activity?
30 March 2023 9:14pm
25 April 2023 5:08pm
greetings!
i sent you a PM regarding this, feel free to contact me however is most convenient for you -
regards,
chris
Indigenous groups working with camera traps in Latin America
19 April 2023 10:53pm
21 April 2023 1:27pm
Hello,
Happy to put you in contact with some of my grantees working in Mexico who have extensive experience in capacity building for indigenous communities focused in species monitoring, including: Eco-Creando Soluciones, AC, Bosque Antiguo, AC, Bioconciencia, AC. Let me know.
Best,
Amanda
21 April 2023 2:23pm
I've heard that Alianza Ceibo and Amazon Frontlines use camera traps in the Amazonian regions of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru to monitor poaching and land encroachment. You can reach out to them directly or I can put you in touch with one of their program managers if you'd like (I only have her # and don't want to post her personal info directly on here though).
21 April 2023 8:22pm
Great, thank you both! I'll follow up for introductions/ contact info
Catch up with The Variety Hour: April 2023
21 April 2023 10:42am
Camera traps, AI, and Ecology
14 April 2023 10:08am
7 June 2023 9:42am
1 August 2023 10:46am
1 September 2023 8:06am
12 July 2023 3:58pm
During Andrew's talk, @dmorris put out a call in the chat that might be relevant to folks catching up on the video, so I'll drop it here too:
Re: Andrew's fish work... part of the reason I got in touch with Andrew a few weeks ago is that I'm trying to keep track of public datasets and public models for marine video that have basically this gestalt (video where fish look fishy-ish). I think we're getting close to enough public data to train a general-purpose model that will work well across ecosystems. My running list of datasets is here:
https://lila.science/otherdatasets#images-marine-fish
Let me know if folks know of others!
There are also a grand total of two public models that I'm aware of that sort of fall into this category... one is Andrew's:
https://github.com/ajansenn/KakaduFishAI
The other is:
https://github.com/warplab/megafishdetector
If folks know of other publicly-available models, let me know about those too!