Hey Lisa, 

There are plenty of off-the-shelf, low-cost GPS archival tags that you could attach, but as you note, getting the data off without recovery is where you transform from low-cost to "higher" costs. Coupling a low-cost GPS archival tag with a UHF or VHF radio tag and a handheld receiver might be one of the cheapest ways to go. There are a number of radio-tag manufacturers that you can look into that have such devices (present company included).

If you want a tag to collect GPS locations and transmit that data through some means (cellular or satellite), your low-cost application quickly turns into a high-cost application. For example, on the low end our GSM-based tags around in the $1600 range and our satellite-based tags are in the $2500 range. Then you also have the data service costs to consider. 

...just some initial thoughts

Hi, I'm a front-end developper working with 

Read "EarthToolsMaker" on

EarthToolsMaker

Open Technology for Wildlife and the Planet

We are currently building app and tools to better visualise camera trap datasets. (more on that here)

If you have any need for user interactions an front-end work, make sure to ping me! 

Hi. I am Nev Kemp working with the High Conservation Value Network. The Network is a member-based organization that promotes the High Conservation Value (HCV) Approach, a pragmatic methodology to identify and protect ecosystems, biodiversity, and the needs of indigenous peoples and local communities where development takes place. https:// HCVs are biological, ecological, social, or cultural value of outstanding significance or critical importance and include six categories 1. Species Diversity; 2. Landscape-level ecosystems, ecosystem mosaics and IFL; 3. Ecosystems and Habitats; 4. Ecosystem  Services; 5. Community Needs; and 6 Cultural Values. 

The HCV approach has its origins in FSC certification but is now included in 23 standards and beyond certification. Under certification schemes, land managers should identify, manage and monitor their HCVs to maintain and enhance them. One of the biggest weakness is monitoring, especially for biodiversity. HCV a I am working on updating the Forest Integrity Assessment (FIA) tool https://www.hcvnetwork.org/library/hcv-screening-summary that helps managers (and other non-experts) monitor the state of their forests and promote action to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services. FIA has been implemented in many countries, but 'old-school' - manually, paper-based, that has made its uptake and utility limited. We need to update the tool on an accessible and mobile application with integrate suitable tech for monitoring biodiversity. The potential for monitoring biodiversity on a massive scale across 6 continents where the HCV approach is applied is both exciting and challenging. While very new to the tech space, I have been working in conservation for over 30 years (SE Asia) and have practical field experience working with stakeholders on the ground. So I here to learn what is possible, and what the network members think is most appropriate for the needs of HCVN. Cheers   

Hello everyone, I am very excited to just have joined Wildlabs.net and to connect with people from all over. My name is Brigitta and I am working as a project coordinator for the Animove Summer school www.animove.org for the Max Planck Institut of Animal Behavior.

I went to University of Michigan for undergrad. I admired this graduate program in engineering sustainable systems. It's a dual degree through the school of nature resources and the college of engineering (for example, mechanical engineering department). You apply to both schools and if you get into both, you can get into this program.

Good luck!

I work on shark research using photo ID techniques, and the mother company running all the software is based in the US (called Conservation X). They are doing really exciting stuff to combine technology with conservation efforts. Perhaps its a company you could contact to see if there are internships or anything?

Hi Frida!

As a recent graduate gearing up for grad school applications, I've also been looking into conservation tech programs. As @carlybatist already mentioned, there's an Ecology and Data Science MSc from UCL, and @Frank_van_der_Most mentioned the upcoming program from the University of South Wales. I also want to add the MS in Conservation Technology from Florida Tech. 

I'll let you know if I find more.

Lively and informative discussion, I would very much like to contribute if there is some active development work with regards to this. 
I have recent experience with using Model Context Protocol (MCP) to integrate various tools & data repositories with LLMs like Claude. I believe this could be a good idea/path whereby we can do the following:
1. use the images & labels along with any meta-data, chunk/index/store it in vector db
2. integrate with existing data sources available by exposing the data through MCP server

3. Use MCP friendly LLM clients (like Claude) to query, visualize and do other open-ended things leveraging the power of LLM and camera trap data from various sources. 
 

Regards,

Ajay

I very much agree. It is a shame that companies/organisations are willing to spend so much to take from the earth and so little to give back. In the example I come from, we are a team of pure citizen scientists that give all our time for free to perform shark research. In my case, those same volunteers often use money from their own back pocket to keep the project going. We also rely heavily on the generosity of Conservation X to keep our software running and the servers alive.

Technology is not cheap to run. Every server uses electricity and as we all know its going up in price. 

It is a very scary situation when I know that all shark research that we are performing with Spot a Shark (and is being relied on by scientists to publish studies) is funded by nothing more than favours and donations. If that all ended tomorrow, do we just stop all research, awareness, campaigning etc and hope for the best?  

My view is that it ultimately comes down to the government to ensure that conservation is valued. Take extra taxes from the wealthy organisations / banks etc and fund this stuff. I am sure if people like Mark Zuckerberg etc can afford a $900k watch to wear on their wrist, they could afford to support conservation. 

Hello Martina, I just messaged you! Hope to speak soon! :)