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Header image: Laura Kloepper, Ph.D.

discussion

Improving the performance of the pippyg static bat detector with a remote microphone

UPDATE : thanks to some EXTREMELY useful and positive feedback, I have made revisions to the pippyg design and the results are remarkable. I can now...

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All inputs gratefully received and acknowledged! There will be experimentation with ferrite and resistor combinations when I get my components in. 

The circuit on shipping PCBs has a 220 ohm resistor on the mic and op amp to operate as a low-pass filter to suppress high frequency supply noise. The current to the op amp and mic together are low enough that the 3.3v input drops to around 3.2v beyond the filter, definitely good for both op-amp and microphone. The combination of 44uF and 220ohms should put the 3dB point at 17Hz, so the filtering effect at even 17kHz - 10 octaves above that - is 60dB. The supply to the analog circuit should be very stable and quiet at the frequencies we care about, 20kHz and beyond, which is why the clicking noises with high frequency components was so annoying - it's clearly acoustic, no electrical in origin, it's pretty clear after all the comments on here that, even though SD cards do seem to generate ultrasound, the ceramic capacitors I've been using are the bigger culprit, so I need to address that and report back with an update to this post. 

This has all been, and continues to be, EXTREMELY interesting and educational, and will ultimately lead to big improvements in what is already a great, affordable recorder.

Here is the final, dramatic word. I built a pipistrelle (noisier than a pippyg so a good test) and used non-ceramic capacitors and played with ferrites and 1R resistors. 

Attached are new vs old sonograms, and it's a remarkable improvement. The visual difference is stark, and there is a measured 5dB improvement in the "silence" between Noctule calls. Thanks to everyone who commented on this, this problem was entirely about ceramic capacitors. I have no doubt SD cards do generate ultrasound, but in this case it was being dwarfed by the ultrasound generated by the capacitors. 

Circuit changes shown below - 3x 22uF ceramics removed, 2x 22uF ceramics replaced by 47uF poly/tant, 5x 100nF ceramics replaced by 100nF NP0/C0Gs, 1 ferrite swapped for a 1R - this one may be pointless!

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discussion

Non-Invasive Turtle Nest Monitoring Using RTI Technology

📢 We're excited to share our new #ConservationTech initiative!Using Radio Tomographic Imaging (RTI), our team is building a non-invasive system to monitor...

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Hello, could you please elaborate on what the purpose of this project is? Thanks a lot :)

 

Lukas

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discussion

Cellular Camera Traps in Europe

Hi All,Looking for a camera trap that will work on European 4G network (Greece). I've identified a few, but they have questionable reviews/experiences. Has anybody here deployed...

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We manufacture the DOC AI Cam. It's a thermal camera, so particularly good for nocturnal animals. It comes with a 4G modem. It might meet your needs?

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discussion

Implanted biologgers with remote data access

Hi AllI'm helping to develop a project that wants to record body temperature and heart rate through implanted biologgers in large African herbivores. An existing project uses...

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Hi @Ebennitt, we do have a working solution that works with all our OpenCollar devices. We connect to sub skin implants and then send and store those readings using Bluetooth, LoRaWAN and/or Iridium satellite. We can have a quick online meeting if you like to show this. Works great!

Hi @Ebennitt ,

I have a similar interest for the use of implantable heart rate loggers with remote data access capabilities. Have you found any solutions?

Thanks,

Courtney

Hi Courtney

Nothing off-the-shelf. A colleague is talking to e-obs about developing this capability but I don't think it's there yet. 

There are some Bluetooth-transmitting body temperature loggers being used in South Africa, I think they are through LoggerMate. However, this means getting close to the device with a BT receiver, not transmission to collar.

So in short, nothing concrete as of now I'm afraid.

All the best

Emily

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event

Animal Sound Archive Webinar

The Animal Sound Archive at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is one of the world’s oldest and most extensive collections of animal sounds. With its complete digitization, the archive provides open data access to a vast...

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discussion

WILDLABS AWARDS 2025 - Trapper Keeper - a scalable and energy-efficient open-source camera trap data infrastructure

With the support of the WILDLABS Awards and Arm, we are about to launch Trapper Keeper, an open-source, AI-powered infrastructure for next-generation camera trap...

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I'm excited to see this project begin; I think its focus on versatility and functionality for users in diverse environments will allow Trapper Keeper to have a broad impact, organically!
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discussion

Help needed : Overview of Image Analysis and Visualization from Camera Traps

As part of my thesis internship, I’m exploring ways to improve ecoSecrets – an open-access web application designed by Natural Solutions to support...

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This camera trap survey addresses the crucial need for a unified and comprehensive solution to improve data reliability and standardize monitoring techniques in wildlife research. Well done !

This survey on camera trap use is a valuable effort to improve data quality and consistency in wildlife monitoring. Looking forward to the results and how they will help shape best practices and future research. Great initiative!

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discussion

Advice needed for accessible acoustic monitoring 

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...

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Hi Mona. Yes, this is what we certainly what we are considering, but how to measure these indices by the hands of non-experts in the field is the advice that I need from the WL network.  Cheers

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discussion

Internship advice

Hi everyone! I would really appreciate some advice on an internship possibility that I could follow, as part of my Master's program in GIS. It would be a position with...

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Hi Jody,

Thanks for posting this question. Here are a couple of recommendations and ideas:

  • Pay. They should be paying you, not the other way around. I wouldn't recommend any internship that requires a fee to participate. You possess highly relevant and valuable technical skills, and organizations or businesses should compensate you accordingly, even as a student. I suggest looking elsewhere for organizations that need talented individuals to help solve problems for them.
  • Sources. Jobsingis has been listing internships lately, as have several UN agencies on UN jobs. Go to https://www.jobingis.com. You could also ask folks directly here or on other listservs such as SCGIS. LinkedIn would be another place to search for or ask about potential internships.

Happy to repost anything on Linkedin for you and good luck!

Vance

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discussion

AI/ML opportunities

Hello,I’ll be graduating with a masters in AI and machine learning in August, and I’m currently doing my industry project with Aurizn, where I’m segmenting high resolution...

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Ritika, 

All the best! I hope someone provides a more substantive answer! 

I have also graduated with masters in AI and ML recently. Difference being I am at the end of my IT career. I am looking for a career switch to biodiversity, wildlife conservation, sustainability or climate change. 

I am trying to do my best to do modern job search. Just warming up to it. LinkedIn, posting relevant posts, being consistent. Virtual networking. In person networking. Being a soon to be fresh graduate, you have access to a huge student networking and academic circle. Keep hitting them consistently and I am sure you will find something. 

Share the good news when it happens. :)

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discussion

LoRa-GPS for small mammals

Hi everyone,I am working in a national park where a local NGO is soon to be setting up a LoRaWan gateway mainly for monitoring animal movement and human activities in real-time...

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discussion

Need advice for running BirdNET on big data

I have some 25,000 hours of acoustic recordings to process via BirdNET analyzer, most of it in 15 second chunks. I ran an initial ~4,000 hours, which took a few weeks running in...

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Would that be able to process locally stored acoustic data? 

 

One of the great things about birdnet analyzer is that it is local - it doesn't require uploading terabytes of data into the cloud, which would be expensive, take forever, and likely have some transfer errors in areas with poor internet connection (like the tropics where I do my research). 

Hi Hubert, I think the key will be to ensure the model is making use of your GPU. In general, BirdNET should theoretically support GPU usage but I have never been able to get it working. You can use a tool such as nvidia-smi to ensure that the GPU is being used. 

My recommendation (as the developer behind the bioacoustics model zoo) would be to use WSL 2 (windows subsystem for linux) and use one of the alternatives to BirdNET available in the the bioacoustics model zoo (Perch, BirdSet EfficientNet, BirdSet ConvNext, HawkEars). All of these alternatives provide GPU support. The also might work perfectly fine on Windows without WSL, but you're more likely to encounter issues. 

this will require a bit of python environment set up and coding, but WSL + python + bioacoustics model zoo will ensure you can use your GPU to speed up inference. At a high level, you would need to 

(1) install WSL if you don't have it yet

(2) in WSL, install miniconda and create a conda environment

(3) install the bioacoustics model zoo in the conda environment

(4) run a python script using a model zoo model .predict(audio_files) function. You'll want to use a large batch_size eg 256 and probably num_workers=4 or so if you have multiple CPU cores to use

See docs in the link below and at opensoundscape.org for details, and feel free to reach out if you need help

Cheers,

Sam

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discussion

Apply for Free Access to Nature FIRST Conference (innovative solutions for biodiversity monitoring and human-wildlife coexistence)

The European project Nature FIRST is hosting its final conference at Ouwehands Dierenpark in the Netherlands on 25–26 June 2025, and we’re looking to expand our...

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Nice!

Thought I'd mention that Wildlife Security Innovations will have a booth there, demonstrating our new multi-camera, local AI camera trap that supports miniature high resolution thermal modules. I will be bringing these along.

Hi

This is great! 

So just to double check - there is no way to join online? I would love to be part of this conference. 

Thanks, Els van Lavieren

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discussion

Evaluation of Global Forest Watch 

Hello all, First of all, I want to introducte myself as a new member of the Wildlabs community.  My name is Iain McNicol and I am the Programme Manager for the Centre...

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Hi @iainmcnicol , welcome to WILDLABS! Thanks for posting this on here. I have shared with my colleagues at Fauna & Flora who have some experience (especially with the deforestation alerts) and could maybe provide feedback as well. We also have a page on 'The Inventory' where we're asking people to review various data products, tools, platforms etc including one for Global Forest Watch. As you can see not many reviews currently so it would be great (if possible by anonymising responses etc.) to get the information from your survey and translate this into something we could add to 'The Inventory' for the wider community. Let me know your thoughts on this!

Also is there a closing date for the survey?

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discussion

AfriMove

Hi everyone,I want to use this platform to spread the word about AfriMove, a collaborative initiative to share movement data collected from African mammals and a platform for...

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discussion

A crazy new feature on eBird - Uploading media at the list level

Calling all birders!Not sure if you’ve noticed, but eBird has recently added a crazy new feature: you can now upload media, like photos and audio recordings at...

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Thanks for the heads up, Adrien. I've put my birdwatching on hold but will reboot it again this summer and start using eBird.

My first thought was that these were bird photos and eBird would automatically populate your checklist, but now I see these are habitat photos! That is very cool ... eBiome! From the website:

Habitat photos hold tremendous promise for improving bird occurrence models and understanding long-term changes to habitat conditions. We encourage users to document habitats during their visits and continue tracking changes over time. Tagging observed species in habitat photos may help reveal important connections between birds and their environments. These can also offer finer-scale insights that improve our approaches to assessing habitats, which currently relies on satellite imagery.

Soundscape recordings hold similar promise, capturing the broader soundscape of a site and how it may change. They will also play a key role in training Merlin Sound ID to recognize individual species within busy dawn choruses and environmental recordings.

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