Autonomous camera traps for insects provide a tool for long-term remote monitoring of insects. These systems bring together cameras, computer vision, and autonomous infrastructure such as solar panels, mini computers, and data telemetry to collect images of insects.
With increasing recognition of the importance of insects as the dominant component of almost all ecosystems, there are growing concerns that insect biodiversity has declined globally, with serious consequences for the ecosystem services on which we all depend.
Automated camera traps for insects offer one of the best practical and cost-effective solutions for more standardised monitoring of insects across the globe. However, to realise this we need interdisciplinary teams who can work together to develop the hardware systems, AI components, metadata standards, data analysis, and much more.
This WILDLABS group has been set up by people from around the world who have individually been tackling parts of this challenge and who believe we can do more by working together.
We hope you will become part of this group where we share our knowledge and expertise to advance this technology.
Check out Tom's Variety Hour talk for an introduction to this group.
Learn about Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects by checking out recordings of our webinar series:
- Hardware design of camera traps for moth monitoring
- Assessing the effectiveness of these autonomous systems in real-world settings, and comparing results with traditional monitoring methods
- Designing machine learning tools to process camera trap data automatically
- Developing automated camera systems for monitoring pollinators
- India-focused projects on insect monitoring
Meet the rest of the group and introduce yourself on our welcome thread - https://www.wildlabs.net/discussion/welcome-autonomous-camera-traps-insects-group
Group curators
- @tom_august
- | he/him
Computational ecologist with interests in computer vision, citizen science, open science, drones, acoustics, data viz, software engineering, public engagement



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No showcases have been added to this group yet.
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- @nlubcker
- | Dr
Results-Driven R&D Project Manager | Data scientist | I'm a versatile professional with 10 years of global experience in conservation and research.
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Conservation MacGyver. PhD Animal Behaviour
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PhD student working on wild bee conservation in orchards
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- @guyh3rrm
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Cardiff University
I am a PhD candidate exploring video approaches to automate the detection of ecological interactions and exploring how such methods can improve the depth of quantification of interactions
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- @JDCrall85
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- @nick56swim
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I am an IoT and embedded ML developer. I am also a nature enthusiast with keen interest in conserving the endangered species
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- @mihow
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- @ggmelone
- | she/her
University of Wisconsin-Madison
I am an ecologist and entomologist interested in the effects of climate-change driven stressors on plant-pollinator interactions. I use computer vision camera traps to collect high quality data on insect activity!

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- @jcbotsch
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I'm a population and community ecologist studying the effects of global change on insect populations.
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I am an evolutionary geneticist exploring insect seminal proteins, the microscopic keys to insect reproduction. My main research focuses on the manipulation of these proteins through genetic engineering to create environmentally friendly solutions for insect pest management.
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I am a biologists interesesd in ecology and evolution, especially in alpine plants and insects. I develop computer vision and field hardware solutions to automate pollinators monitoring.
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Come and do the first research into responsible AI for biodiversity monitoring, developing ways to ensure these AIs are safe, unbiased and accountable.
11 June 2024
€4,000 travel grants are available for researchers interested in insect monitoring using automated cameras and computer vision
6 June 2024
WildLabs will soon launch a 'Funding and Finance' group. What would be your wish list for such a group? Would you be interested in co-managing or otherwise helping out?
5 June 2024
Do you have photos and videos of your conservation tech work? We want to include them in a conservation technology showcase video
17 May 2024
€2,000 travel grants are available for researchers interested in insect monitoring using automated cameras and computer vision
3 May 2024
Article
Read in detail about how to use The Inventory, our new living directory of conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects.
1 May 2024
Article
The Inventory is your one-stop shop for conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects. Start contributing to it now!
1 May 2024
The Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to help us integrate movement data & camera trap data with global conservation policy.
22 April 2024
We invite applications for the third Computer Vision for Ecology (CV4E) workshop, a three-week hands-on intensive course in CV targeted at graduate students, postdocs, early faculty, and junior researchers in Ecology...
12 February 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
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
Two-year postdoc in AI and remote sensing for citizen-science pollinator monitoring, at Aarhus University. The successful candidate will integrate our computational entomologist team to develop and deploy novel methods...
4 December 2023
November 2022
May 2022
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April 2022
March 2022
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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This video is so great - I don't know what I was imagining that you were building, but this is so much bigger and more involved than whatever I was vaguely thinking. Really cool... |
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Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects | 2 years 5 months ago | |
Hey Tom,Since the output is dependent on a couple of factors such as the solar irradiance of the place, shading from the canopy, the type of solar panels (mono, poly or amorphous... |
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Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Camera Traps, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Sensors | 2 years 6 months ago | |
Awesome! it would be great to hear how you get on, maybe you can share your results here when you have them. Is the camera only for the Pi? That could be a problem for scaling as... |
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Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Sensors | 2 years 8 months ago | |
Hi Julien, we are working with the Luxonis OAK-1 which can run lightweight detection models (e.g. YOLOv5n/s) directly on-device. However you will still need a host, for... |
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Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects | 2 years 9 months ago | |
My most prized camera trap image - a hummingbird caught on camera! |
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Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps | 2 years 10 months ago | |
Might be good to add this to the 'Automated Camera Traps for Insects' group |
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Camera Traps, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects | 2 years 10 months ago | |
Have you considered creating a Kaggle competition? If you already have lots of images, and some that have been labelled, then this could be a good way to get people working on a... |
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AI for Conservation, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps | 3 years ago |