I am a Camera Trapper hobbyist. I have gotten some nice otter videos. You can see them on my you tube channel pheekin trail camera videos. There is nothing on the channel but 15 second videos of animals that I have filmed. I have several otter videos on the channel that I think are pretty good. I found a spot where beaver, mink, and otters were moving between a medium size river and a man made wetland. I set my cameras on the trails. The secret was getting the camera really low on the trees near the trails. If you look at the otter videos the camera is pointed toward the river, just offset of the trail. When placed at 90 degrees to the trail the otters moved too fast for a good video. When offset but looking toward the river, the otters see the camera but most animals still proceeded down the trail toward the wetland. It helped that the river bank was steep and when they got to the top they triggered the camera at the same time they saw the camera. The camera was a true dark flash so they see the camera has and object but do not see the flash. One warning when cameras are set low on a tree the camera really has to be locked in tight. Raccoon and coyote will investigate the camera and some will knock it.  Coyotes knocked out  of position three of the 4 cameras that I set. Thankfully I got the otters before they knocked the cameras. Hope this helps 

Hi David,

Harold is correct. Cattle do like to use anything to scratch against. They are also pretty inquisitive.  

Cattle don't like shadows or flowing rubbish/ material. So attach a flag post near the camera or build a cage around it. Yet with a cage, cattle will most likely rub up against it. 

Never ending cycle of the scratching vs what you don't want moved

Hi Yvan, 

I dropped this into the AI for Conservation slack group as well, you got this reply this morning: 

Steph 

Hi Yvan,

If you find something which reaches your expectation and especially the ability to identify individual with plumage patterns I will be intereted.

In the same idea that Ultralytics, there is : 

Read "Lobe · GitHub" on GitHub

Lobe · GitHub

Machine Learning Made Easy. Lobe has 11 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.

GitHub

Which could probably answer your first and second requirements.

And find here a great website showing all the IA-based camera software, you may find solutions or contact throw this list:

Read "Everything I know about ML and camera traps" on

Everything I know about ML and camera traps

Hi Ann,

The best thing to do is contact Nic and Hannes directly: 

https://wildeyeconservation.org/contact-us/

They can provide you with an overview of the software and answer any questions you have. I've heard good things from a couple of others who have tried out TrapTagger.

Best,

Matt

Wow, I'd not come across the Kilocam before. What a cool piece of kit! Not remotely helpful to your question sorry (I honestly don't know of a cheaper, better option anyway), but could be the basis of a very cheap, time-lapse camera-collar...

Hi Meredith

We used some cheap Browning trail cams to record grey seal behaviour on the Farne Islands over the last autumn as a timelapse. We recorded an image every 1 min during the pupping season, which you probably don't need not need to record glacial melt, and they performed brilliantly. The batteries (8 x Lithium AA) lasted the whole of the season, from Mid October until the end of December, but we had to periodically swap the 32Gb SD cards as they would fill up after about 3-4 weeks. We also had to tape over the movement detector as that function still works even when timelapse is in operation. 

At the end of the season, we switched to every 2 min to pick up the final waifs and strays and to get some info on the moult, but, due to logistical reasons, we didn't have the chance to replace the batteries, nor could we change the SD cards. Even so, one of the cameras lasted until mid April i.e. over 6 months on a single set of batteries. We only had one of the eight cameras break and that was because a seal went over the top of the camera wrenching it from is anchorage point and eventually into the sea! It did get washed up but was in a sorry state after all that!. The others were all working perfectly and were ready for the seabird season.

Happy to provide more info if you need it

Richard  

Hi Meredith,

Here's a little more information about the Arribada cameras. They are solar powered and received enough power in the Antarctic winter continue photographing.  We programmed them to take an image every hour, which might frequent enough for you to monitor glacial ice. Even with 3 years of continuous monitoring, the memory card did not fill up. I think they are priced a little higher than 90 USD, but they can stand alone without maintenance for a long time. Depending on how remote your field site is, that might be beneficial.

We can send over some of the sea ice images we collected. They're fun and interesting to look at if nothing else.

Hi Erika, 

Suggestions coming in over on Twitter: 

In socks in a cupboard.

— Agvocate_Au (@agvocate_au) June 8, 2022

I store my Cameras in one gallon plastic bags with a zipper lock. Most cameras will fit in that size bag. There is a note card that goes in the bag, The note card lasts longer in the bag and does not smear which it will if you write on the outside and is very important if you are running a lot of cameras. You can make a nice note card with a word processor and lay out everything you want to note. The Notes can be whatever you want to track but the most useful is the brand and model, the date the camera was purchased, The Date it went into the storage bag, Notes on if the camera has been updated. The camera number, the password if the camera needs a password, The person who put the camera in the bag with their full name and the date, A note on how the camera did on it's last deployment, Camera works fine, YES, or whatever might be wrong is listed. I would also list any special features that the camera can perform, such has WIFI enable, Cell Camera, etc. I also make sure the Cameras number is easy to see on the card. When the cameras go out they should have a camera number on the inside of the camera so you can track it in your field notes and make sure all the bags come back from deployment so they are ready for when the cameras come back in from the field. 

The batteries are removed from the camera, When I bring a camera in from the field I test each battery with a  battery tester. If all the batteries are still good that information is noted on the bag card that the batteries were tested and their strength. Keeping the batteries with the camera keeps you from mixing batteries of various strengths. Remove any bad batteries and note if a new one has been added. If you decide to replace all the batteries, Note on the card that they are NEW and their strength because all new batteries should be tested to make sure you did not get a bad one. If batteries are not available put that on the Note card, NOTE, removing the batteries will usually require all the settings to be redone, I still put on the note card, CAMERA NEEDS NEW SETTINGS. 

I also put in the SD Cards, with SD size on the Camera Card. Some of my older cameras only take a 32 gig or smaller, while my new cameras take 125 Gig SD cards. If putting out a camera for a very long run I want to grab one that can take a large SD card. I usually have two SD cards for each camera so they can be swapped out but keep the same cards. Put on the Camera Card that the SD card should reformatted before the next deployment or you can reformat the SD card before the batteries are removed, but NOTE on the camera card that the SD cards are formatted and ready to go. This is a good idea so you know before storage that the SD cards work. 

Last I add one packet of Silica Dry packs. The bags are 5 grams. I use DRY and DRY. I got them in a 50 packet bag from Amazon, about 8 bucks. They are cheap and do a great job of removing all the moisture from the Camera, batteries, SD card, and keeps them dry for even very very long storage. 

Hope this helps, when the camera number goes up the more you need to keep them organized. 

I forgot to add, I put the cameras in the bag with the doors or camera halves OPEN so the moisture does not stay in a closed camera, we want everything to stay dry.