WILDLABS logoWildlabs.net : The conservation technology network

WILDLABS logoWildlabs.net : The conservation technology network

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.

article

How to speak investors’ language?

Aurelie Pollak

23 July 2025 1:52pm

To effectively engage with an investor, it's best to grasp key financial and strategic concepts, and understand how an investor thinks. Let's cover the basics

2 3
Jonathan Carlo Briones

1 August 2025 10:04am

Thank you for the interesting article. For academia-based biologists, we dont have inherent training on finance and investment training. We often cant find, or sometimes refuse to...
Aurelie Pollak

3 August 2025 3:25pm

Thank you Jonathan for your message! Indeed this is exactly the gap we are trying to bridge. Is there any specific sort of training/resources/webinar that would be of interesting...
See full post
event

The Variety Hour: July 2025

Alex Rood

21 July 2025 3:33pm

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...

0
See full post
discussion

Excited about AI in Conservation

Nate Hoyle

21 July 2025 2:03pm

Hi everyone! I am so excited to be a part of this group for two reasons. First, as part of my job, i manage computers and other devices. On my own time, I am a Vertical Market AI...

0
See full post
discussion

PACE LAND DATA AND USER GROUP

Vance Russell

8 July 2025 11:06am

The Plankton Aerosol Cloud Ocean Ecosystem Observatory (PACE) has freely available hyperspectral land surface data available on Earth Engine. Add the repo in Earth Engine here and...

2 1
Vance Russell

8 July 2025 11:28am

The  Jupyter notebook on projecting and formatting PACE OCI data is also available here!

Elsa Carla De Grandi

21 July 2025 1:42pm

Very interesting! Thanks for posting this. I found the NASA ARSET Tutorial quite useful for an overview on PACE before delving into the data. Highly recommend it if you're new to hyperspectral and the PACE mission!

See full post
discussion

Geospatial Group Reflections 2024-2025

Vance Russell

18 July 2025 2:53pm

BACKGROUNDAuthors: @VAR1 @elsa @ahmedjunaid Starting in July 2024 and concluding in July 2025, Elsa Carla De Grandi of Fauna & Flora, Ahmed Junaid of SAVE THE FROGS...

1 4
Elsa Carla De Grandi

21 July 2025 1:15pm

Wow great effort everyone! We wouldn't have been able to have such a successful group without all our members and our wonderful speakers @LeanneTough , Dr Kuria Thiongo, @idioguardi98 , @mayanisasi , Dr. Alice Catherine Hughes, Dr. Muhammad Rais, @eliseb227! Thanks for sharing your knowledge :) 

Of course, special thanks to @VAR1 and @ahmedjunaid for being great co-leads for the past year! And to @alexrood for running the Group Leadership Programme! I am excited for what's ahead in the Geospatial group!

I would also love to hear any feedback :) and if you have found that any of our discussions & contributions have helped you with your work or simply inspired you let us know.

See full post
discussion

Exploring the Wild Edge: A Proposal for a New WILDLABS Group

Youssef Bayouli

9 June 2025 5:41pm

Over the past year, I’ve found myself returning again and again to one big question: How can we make conservation tech work where the wild really begins , where the signal...

58 17
Stuart Johnson

13 July 2025 5:02pm

This sounds like a great idea, this is an area that I want to do more work in,

 

Where can I sign up.

 

 

Youssef Bayouli

15 July 2025 5:43pm

Hey Stuart,

Thank you for your interest! We're glad you'd like to be part of our journey. We're still in the process of setting up the group, and we'll let you know as soon as we're ready.

Thanks for your understanding! 🤗 

See full post
discussion

Foxlights predator deterrant

Dave Cortright

24 November 2015 6:53pm

You probably all heard about Richard Turere's lion lights project. A Australian sheep herder created a similar device called Foxlights. It has some advantages in that it...

29 0
Dave Cortright

24 March 2017 8:22pm

Personally, I'd order a few of the $10 radios from eBay and see how they work. They are cheap enough that if they don't work out, you wouldn't be out much money. 

For $27, you could try one of these which is rated Waterproof Level IPX3; it can be used during rainy weather.

From my brief search, I think you are going to have a tough time finding something solar, waterproof, and inexpensive. But do let us know what you turn up!

Previn Jacob

18 July 2025 9:22am

Really appreciate this discussion and the collective interest in humane, non-lethal deterrent solutions.

We at Katidhan, based in India, have been working on a similar innovation called Parabraksh — a solar-powered smart deterrent that uses randomized light patterns to simulate the presence of a threat (like eye contact or motion). It’s specifically designed for deterring elephants, wild boars, leopards, tigers, and other wild animals that cause crop loss or endanger human settlements.

Inspired by the efforts of Lion Lights and Foxlights, we focused on building a solution that’s cost-effective, rugged, and adaptable to diverse geographies. Parabraksh is certified by a government agri-university and has been deployed in over 5,000 installations across India, including projects with state forest departments.

We understand the concerns around animal habituation, and Parabraksh addresses this with a dynamic light logic that changes patterns and behavior unpredictably. When combined with smart field practices and periodic repositioning, the deterrent effect has remained effective across long deployment cycles.

If anyone is interested in trying or procuring the system, feel free to reach out to me directly at previn@katidhan.com. We’re happy to collaborate or share insights.

Warm regards,
Previn Jacob
Katidhan | www.katidhan.com

See full post
discussion

Software for tortoise re-identification

Elisabeth Wareing

27 June 2025 12:41pm

I was wondering whether anybody has come across AI-software that would be able to re-identify animals - I am looking for a tool to re-identify giant tortoises.I have a small group...

7 1
Jason Holmberg

11 July 2025 4:26pm

We would be happy to explore supporting this in the Internet of Turtles (iot.wildbook.org). We support marine and terrestrial species, and the HotSpotter (SIFT) and MiewID v3 algorithms for re-ID would likely have good zero-shot matching potential.

Elisabeth Wareing

18 July 2025 7:25am

Hi Jason, 
That sounds exciting. From what I understand, the Internet of Turtles focusses mainly on animals traveling long distances. The tortoises I am interested in re-identifying are limited in their range, as they the island they are on is quite small. Would that nevertheless be of interest for that database? And if so, how would you suggest to proceed? 

Elisabeth Wareing

18 July 2025 7:38am

Also, I would generally interested to contribute to the Internet of Turtles with sea turtle photos. There are a lot of Green and Hawksbill sea turtles of various ages in the sea surrounding the island where I work, so I have requested an account via the website

See full post
discussion

Help Shape India’s First Centralized Bioacoustics Database – 5 Min Survey

Sarika Khanwilkar

13 May 2025 3:01pm

Do you collect or use sound recordings of habitats or species like birds, frogs, mammals, or insects in India? We need your expertise!Please take 5 minutes to fill out this...

1 2
Sarika Khanwilkar

17 July 2025 8:07am

PROJECT UPDATE: 

We are curating an open-access, annotated acoustic dataset for India! 🇮🇳🌿

This project has two main goals:
🎧 To develop a freely available dataset of annotated acoustic data from across India (for non-commercial use)
📝 To publish a peer-reviewed paper with all community contributors that ensures transparency, credibility, and future usability

Join us: 
1️⃣ Read the FAQs for more details: 🔗 https://drive.google.com/file/u/1/d/1dYRZ579upiU6s-qMrlT1T3iNxbHfNFMi/view?usp=sharing
2️⃣ Fill out the Data Agreement Form to indicate your participation in the project: 🔗 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezMdysMokgfP-6UKwnetRpCafTJpj55uvKnDe1G7KvKBbIaQ/viewform

By contributing your field recordings or annotation expertise, you’ll be supporting the future creation of AI-powered tools for wildlife detection and conservation research

This initiative is community-powered and open science-driven. Whether you're a researcher, sound recordist, conservationist, or bioacoustics enthusiast, your input will shape the future of biodiversity research in India.

Contact indiaecocacousticsnetwork@gmail.com for any questions or collaborations!

See full post
article

Read the WILDLABS 2024 Annual Report

WILDLABS Team

17 July 2025 9:02pm

From 2023 to 2024, WILDLABS has grown substantially, launching impactful new platform features, delivering critical funding opportunities, and connecting the community in new and exciting ways. Read more about the...

3 5
Frank van der Most

21 July 2025 10:08am

Thank you for the report @wildlabs team!It is a great read and good to see an overview of everything that has happened within WILDLABS in the previous two years Two very...
Frank van der Most

8 August 2025 10:17am

Thank you for elaborating, @alexrood ! It makes a lot of sense!
See full post
discussion

Thermal imaging when it's 36 degrees outside

Kim Hendrikse

3 July 2025 4:58pm

I thought I'd share what our thermal camera images look like when it's a 36 degrees heat wave outside. The good news is that the AI still matches. It inverts the image to...

3 1
Adrien Pajot

4 July 2025 3:07pm

Thanks for sharing, nice to see! 

Kim Hendrikse

17 July 2025 12:43pm

It's a wildlabs security innovations thermal camera product. We are a new company (The Netherlands), just formed last year. We just have one wildlife customer at the moment in Australia for the thermal modules, from a progressive early adopter :)



Our next work package will be to build a website to show all the products and options, this is sorely needed. In the meantime however, I'm happy to show you it operating over a video meeting if you like, please message me directly if you would like this. At the moment we have a camera that has the following functionality in the most extended version:



* Thermal module, options are 640x512, 384x288, 256x192

* Low light visible light module, currently testing different modules with very low light sensitivity based on star vis 2 chips and large pixel sizes

* Remote access via a VPN with a USB cell modem

* Local large model (25,000,000 parameters AI recognition of some animals

* Motion detection (Works really well with thermal as the images are very stable)

* Video alerting triggers

* 24/7 h264 recording with very high quality audio input, can make this be an audio ARU on the same device is desired, also a sound localizing one.

* Local relay response input/output

* Build in extensive GUI configured state machine



We are working towards and off the shelf self configured version, but in the meantime we are offering customizing and working with the customer.



We can also sell a fairly dumb version which is effectively just a network thermal camera if that's all you need.



There is a link to more videos on the inventory page below



 

https://wildlabs.net/inventory/products/wildlife-security-innovations-thermal-cameras

The radiometric version has really impressive onboard image processing. I uploaded a new video that shows this the other day.



 

The sound recording system we can add is from our open source sbts ARU project (

). Which provides sound localization if you want as well. Note, it can record flac files that are localizable as well as merging the broadcast quality sound into both the thermal and visible light h264 quicktime recordings at the same time on the same platform.

See full post
Link

AI Pipeline for digitalisation of labels

Ginevra Bellini

17 July 2025 9:44am

Dear colleagues, I'd like to share with you the output of the project KIEBIDS, which focused on using AI to extract biodiversity-relevant information from museum labels. Perhaps it can be applied also to other written materials, more related to conservation? Have a look!

0
discussion

Advise needed on Close Focus Camera Traps

Maristela Martins de Camargo

27 June 2025 7:30pm

Hi, everyone! Could someone advise me on best models of close focus (object at ~20cm) camera traps in the market? I only found a couple of models from GardePro, but I don't know...

5 0
Stacy Cotey

12 July 2025 12:50pm

I use the lenses from reading glasses (3.0 magnification) as mentioned. I pop the lens out of the frames and then tape it over the camera lens with electrical tape as we use the cameras for other projects and need to remove the reading lens. It does not seem to affect the image quality except in high moisture situations where it sometimes gets fogged but that happens with the regular camera lens sometimes too.

See full post
discussion

Lion collars LoRaWan

Stephan

24 May 2023 8:10am

Hello everyone, we are looking for suitable lion collars for a project in Kenya. (20 collars)Vertex (Vectronics) was used before, but they can't ship to Kenya nor have...

9 2
Ana

11 July 2025 7:31am

Hi, everyone. We are considering buying some LORA collars for lions and I was wondering if someone ended up using them. Are the collars robust enough to be placed on lions? I would appreciate any advise anyone can give.
Craig Rackstraw

13 July 2025 4:54pm

Hi Stephan,

Our TagRanger system would be an ideal solution for this project. TagRanger is based around LoRaWAN and allows you to pop up your own ad hoc Tag network anywhere, with a lot of features for tracking and finding Tags.  

Our handheld 'Finder' device is your 'network', and pairs with your phone to map Tag positions and journey paths while also giving you live access to Tag positioning with 'ranging' capability to allow you to home in on your Tag when you want to find it.

TagRanger can also be integrated seamlessly to an existing fixed LoRaWAN network if you have one available.

We also have a capability to put 'relay' devices on a drone, mast or other high point to massively increase range or to mitigate issues with forest/jungle/hills blocking coverage.

We can provide customised housings for any application and battery size so please let me know if you'd like to discuss options.

https:\\www.tagranger.com

TagRanger

TagRanger Relay

Fadhilla Golda

15 July 2025 9:44am

Hi Ana,

Savannah Tracking Ltd, based in Kenya, exclusively provides tracking and IT solutions for wildlife research, management and conservation projects worldwide.

We offer a range of GPS tracking models, equipped with iridium satellite or combined LoRA/Kineis data connections and we would be happy to support your needs. 

Please contact us through @info@savannahtracking.com to understand your project needs in more detail and develop a bespoke solution for you.

 

See full post