Camera traps have been a key part of the conservation toolkit for decades. Remotely triggered video or still cameras allow researchers and managers to monitor cryptic species, survey populations, and support enforcement responses by documenting illegal activities. Increasingly, machine learning is being implemented to automate the processing of data generated by camera traps.
A recent study published showed that, despite being well-established and widely used tools in conservation, progress in the development of camera traps has plateaued since the emergence of the modern model in the mid-2000s, leaving users struggling with many of the same issues they faced a decade ago. That manufacturer ratings have not improved over time, despite technological advancements, demonstrates the need for a new generation of innovative conservation camera traps. Join this group and explore existing efforts, established needs, and what next-generation camera traps might look like - including the integration of AI for data processing through initiatives like Wildlife Insights and Wild Me.
Group Highlights:
Our past Tech Tutors seasons featured multiple episodes for experienced and new camera trappers. How Do I Repair My Camera Traps? featured WILDLABS members Laure Joanny, Alistair Stewart, and Rob Appleby and featured many troubleshooting and DIY resources for common issues.
For camera trap users looking to incorporate machine learning into the data analysis process, Sara Beery's How do I get started using machine learning for my camera traps? is an incredible resource discussing the user-friendly tool MegaDetector.
And for those who are new to camera trapping, Marcella Kelly's How do I choose the right camera trap(s) based on interests, goals, and species? will help you make important decisions based on factors like species, environment, power, durability, and more.
Finally, for an in-depth conversation on camera trap hardware and software, check out the Camera Traps Virtual Meetup featuring Sara Beery, Roland Kays, and Sam Seccombe.
And while you're here, be sure to stop by the camera trap community's collaborative troubleshooting data bank, where we're compiling common problems with the goal of creating a consistent place to exchange tips and tricks!
Header photo: Stephanie O'Donnell
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Retired, living on South Africas Northern west coast tracking Brown hyena
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I'm a young agronomist/expert in the planning and management of protected areas at the start of my career in the conservation of terrestrial flora and fauna. I have good experience in plant management and production. My passion for biodiversity conservation has led me to acquire
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- @Meagan
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Supporting wildlife monitoring in remote Pacific Islands
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Terrestrial Ecologist
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- @marinejoly
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Associate Professor in Cognitive Ethology (University of Portsmouth, UK), I am interested in primate behaviour and cognition. I am seeking new avenues to investigate animal cognition and address conservation issues.
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- @kbubnicki
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Ecologist, data scientist, and programmer with over 13 years of professional experience. Open source and Linux enthusiast. Researcher at the Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, and CEO of the Open Science Conservation Fund.

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- @stefan_istrate
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Machine Learning Researcher & Nature Photographer. Building conservation tech for biodiversity monitoring at Wildlife Insights.


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Society for Conservation GIS


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NatureTech Product Manager
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Black Rock Forest (BRF) are recruiting a seasonal Wildlife Connectivity Technician. Visit their website for further details and how to apply. Hurry, applications close soon!
3 November 2021
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...
13 October 2021
In Alina Peter's and Kristen Snyder's contribution to the Technical Difficulties Editorial Series, you'll receive a practical checklist of factors and questions to consider at various stages of your conservation...
13 October 2021
Article
Wildlife Insights is excited to announce the public release of their new platform! Read on to learn about all the useful features you'll find on Wildlife Insights, and check out WILDLABS' Tech Tutors episode with...
27 July 2021
Read our interview with Tasmin Alexander, early career conservationist and member of the CLP Future Conservationist Award-winning Preuss's Monkey Project research team. Working in the Obudu Plateau in Nigeria, this team...
2 June 2021
Read our interview with early career conservationist and CLP Future Conservationist Award recipient Owino Raymond, who is working with camera traps along the Kenya-Somalia border to understand and reduce conflict...
21 May 2021
Check out the new research article "Environmental DNA metabarcoding as a useful tool for evaluating terrestrial mammal diversity in tropical forests." Recently published in Ecological Society of America's Ecological...
6 April 2021
Community Announcement
Whether you spent the last year working in the field, lab, at home, or virtually, the WILDLABS community's conservation tech achievements were on full display in our annual #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge! Relive our...
25 March 2021
This year's iWildCam competition is now live on kaggle. Go beyond just classifying species or detecting animals - this year the challenge focuses on counting how many individuals of each species are seen in a burst of...
12 March 2021
National Geographic is offering funding up to up to $50,000 for conservationists conducting research on how the pandemic has impacted wildlife and conservation work. If you are interested in researching aspects of the...
10 March 2021
Article
WildID is excited to share their new camera trap processing and detection tools with WILDLABS! Using machine learning to identify Southern African wildlife species in large quantities of camera trap data, WildID's tool...
8 March 2021
Based on one of the largest camera trap surveys ever attemped, Internet of Elephants' new mobile game Unseen Empire draws on the real field experiences and camera trap data sets of a single decade-long survey, giving...
8 March 2021
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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The two cameras you mention below tick off most of the items in your requirements list. I think the exception is the “timed start” whereby the camera would “wake up” to arm... |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 6 months ago | |
Hi @GermanFore ,I work with the BearID Project on individual identification of brown bears from faces. More recently we worked on face detection across all bear species and ran... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Software Development | 1 year 6 months ago | |
Hi Jay! Thanks for posting this here as well as your great presentation in the Variety Hour the other day!Cheers! |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 6 months ago | |
For anyone interested: the GBIF guide Best Practices for Managing and Publishing Camera Trap Data is still open for review and feedback until next week. More info can be found in... |
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Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps | 1 year 6 months ago | |
Hi Maddie,This camera has a very quick reaction time. |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 7 months ago | |
Hi @mguins , as @kimhendrikse mentioned resolution (and also brand) for thermal cameras can dictate a big jump in price. GroupGets has a budget Lepton (FS - short for 'factory... |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 8 months ago | |
This is super cool! Me and @Hubertszcz and @briannajohns and several others are all working towards some big biodiversity monitoring projects for a large conservation project here... |
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AI for Conservation, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps, Funding and Finance | 1 year 8 months ago | |
A few months ago, the Wildlife Insights team conducted a survey to learn more about camera trap data management practices, the use of AI... |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 8 months ago | |
Hello Community,I am currently working on specifying some camera trap projects and am particularly interested in gathering statistics on... |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 8 months ago | |
Just a heads up that GBIF has released a new technical document for community peer review. The guide, Best Practices for Managing and... |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 8 months ago | |
Thanks folks. Will go check and let you know what I learn.Mike |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 9 months ago | |
Graeme, Maybe speak to a web IT expert. You may be able to have an interface on the webpage which provides the login credentials to the camera, but then passes the image (and... |
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Camera Traps, Sensors | 1 year 9 months ago |
Camera Trap Data Management Survey: Results
20 September 2023 1:46am
Camera traps statistics
18 September 2023 10:22am
GBIF guide to managing and publishing camera trap data opens for community review
15 September 2023 2:23pm
A low-cost, long-running, open-source stereo camera for tracking aquatic species and their behaviours
5 September 2023 12:15pm
Camera traps reveal wildlifes' responses to megafires in Western U.S.
24 August 2023 10:47pm
Online training workshop: camera trap distance sampling, 23-27 October 2023
21 August 2023 2:24am
Bushnell cameras with date-time issues.
29 July 2023 1:06am
11 August 2023 1:19pm
I am having similar problems with a campark camera. It's more than 4 years old, so it could be the button cell. I am also suspecting that humidity plays a role : the re-set happened a couple of times after long rain periods ( half a day or so ). Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps some corrosion is going on.
11 August 2023 2:45pm
Thanks folks. Will go check and let you know what I learn.
Mike
Live Streaming from a Remote Location (no cell tower access)
15 July 2023 1:18am
29 July 2023 1:29am
"The WiFi Solar Camera comes loaded with various features such as live monitoring ( via smartphone app ), motion sensor recording and notification alerts on detected movement, night vision, cloud storage of footage, an audio system to facilitate communication"
WiFi Solar Camera | Wireless CCTV Home Security Systems
If you use the wifi solar camera with Cctv home security systems and that you have wifi then this is the cheapest option to use. Buy now
29 July 2023 8:43am
Hi Colin, Many thanks for your replies. Yes, Starlink provides full internet access. Our current Wifi Nest camera contains a web server & provides a html code to embed the live stream into a web page for public access. Most security cameras, due to privacy reasons, do not stream to a web page without requiring a username & password. Not a viable solution for public viewing.
We are looking for a camera with PTZ functionality that can stream to a web page without requiring a username & password.
Cheers, Graeme
11 August 2023 12:27pm
Graeme, Maybe speak to a web IT expert. You may be able to have an interface on the webpage which provides the login credentials to the camera, but then passes the image (and control) to another page. Make a "masking" page that keeps the camera happy, but access and control is via another page.
Conservation Technology Specialist
11 August 2023 1:21am
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge: Judges' Panel Honorees
4 August 2023 10:00am
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge: Community Choice Honorees
3 August 2023 10:00am
360 Camera for Marine Monitoring
25 July 2023 8:54am
28 July 2023 7:43pm
Hi Sol,
For my research on fish, I had to put together a low-cost camera that could record video for several weeks. Here is the design I came up with
At the time of the paper, I was able to record video for ~12 hours a day at 10 fps and for up to 14 days. With new SD cards now, it is pushed to 21 days. It costs about 600 USD if you build it yourself. If you don't want to make it yourself, there is a company selling it now, but it is much more expensive. The FOV is 110 degrees, so not the 360 that you need, but I think there are ways to make it work (e.g. with the servo motor).
Happy to chat if you decide to go this route and/or want to brainstorm ideas.
Cheers,
Xavier
3 August 2023 2:32am
Hi Xavier, this is fantastic! Thanks for sharing, the time frame is really impressive and really in line with what we're looking for. I'll send you a message.
Cheers,
Sol
3 August 2023 3:19am
I agree, this would be great for canopy work!
Workshop on the use of information and communications technology for conservation in Central Asia
1 August 2023 11:50pm
Live Streaming Camera
31 July 2023 11:36am
Seeking your support for stereo camera trap project
25 July 2023 5:22pm
Insect camera traps for phototactic insects and diurnal pollinating insects
20 March 2023 9:39am
25 May 2023 7:09am
OK, thanks!
10 July 2023 1:57pm
Hi @abra_ash , @MaximilianPink, @Sarita , @Lars_Holst_Hansen.
I'm looking to train a very compact (TinyML) model for flying pollinator detection on a static background. I hope a network small enough for microcontroller hardware will prove useful for measuring plant-pollinator interactions in the field.
Presently, I'm gathering a dataset for training using a basic motion-triggered video-capture program on a raspberry pi. This forms a very crude insect camera trap.
I'm wondering if anyone has any insights on how I might attract pollinators into my camera field of view? I've done some very elementary reading on bee optical vision and currently trying the following:
Purple and yellow artifical flowers are placed on a green background, the center of the flowers are lightly painted with a UV (365nm) coat.
A sugar paste is added to each flower.
The system is deployed in an inner-city garden (outside my flat), and I regularly see bees attending the flowers nearby.
Here's a picture of the field of view:

Does anyone have ideas for how I might maximise insect attraction? I'm particularly interested in what @abra_ash and @tom_august might have to say - are optical methods enough or do we need to add pheremone lures?
Thanks in advance!
Best,
Ross
20 July 2023 4:40pm
Hi Ross,
Where exactly did you put the UV paint? Was it on the petals or the actual middle of the flowers?
I would recommend switching from sugar paste to sugar water and maybe put a little hole in the centre for a nectary. Adding scent would make the flowers more attractive but trying to attract bees is difficult since they very obviously prefer real flowers to artificial ones. I would recommend getting the essential oil Linalool since it is a component of scented nectar and adding a small amount of it to the sugar water. Please let us know if the changes make any difference!
Kind Regards,
Abra
Senior Technical Specialist, Monitoring & Technology, ZSL
18 July 2023 1:44pm
Wildlife Conservation Drones & Technologies Summit 2023
16 July 2023 10:04pm
Pinniped Time-lapse Camera Surveys in the Southern Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Shore 2019-2022
13 July 2023 2:46pm
Tools for automating image analysis for biodiversity monitoring
12 July 2023 4:50pm
Project Spotlight: Monitoring tropical freshwater fish in Kakadu National Park with drones, underwater cameras and AI
12 July 2023 3:40pm
12 July 2023 3:58pm
During Andrew's talk, @dmorris put out a call in the chat that might be relevant to folks catching up on the video, so I'll drop it here too:
Re: Andrew's fish work... part of the reason I got in touch with Andrew a few weeks ago is that I'm trying to keep track of public datasets and public models for marine video that have basically this gestalt (video where fish look fishy-ish). I think we're getting close to enough public data to train a general-purpose model that will work well across ecosystems. My running list of datasets is here:
https://lila.science/otherdatasets#images-marine-fish
Let me know if folks know of others!
There are also a grand total of two public models that I'm aware of that sort of fall into this category... one is Andrew's:
https://github.com/ajansenn/KakaduFishAI
The other is:
https://github.com/warplab/megafishdetector
If folks know of other publicly-available models, let me know about those too!
2023 Canon Oceania Grants - Environmental Grant AU$5,000
7 July 2023 1:47pm
What does "EK" stand for (as in "100EK113")?
4 July 2023 7:00pm
5 July 2023 12:14am
Most trailcam manufacturers use OEM camera designs from factories that cater to many different applications and companies. Most likely, Bushnell didn't design the camera circuitry and write the software, hence what you're seeing is the vanilla software from the reference design created by the image processor manufacturer used by the camera. My guess is the EK stands for "Evaluation Kit" and the design firm that designed the circuitry for the Bushnell trailcam didn't change the software for the file naming.
5 July 2023 3:58am
I like your hypothesis. I'm going with that until someone demonstrates otherwise. It's less fun than finding out that Elsa Kramer's birthday was January 13th (or November 3rd?), but it seems plausible. Reconyx went the extra 0.00001 miles, I guess, to change one string in the code.
New Add-ons for Mbaza AI
4 July 2023 12:00pm
Camera Trap Data Normalization Help
31 May 2023 2:45pm
16 June 2023 5:36pm
Hi Michelle,
it would be good to get some more information on your project. What question are you trying to answer? How many cameras did you have deployed? How many different study sites/haul-out areas are there?
16 June 2023 6:35pm
Absolutely, I am happy to provide it. Our objectives are 1) to improve the understanding of local and seasonal haul-out patterns, and the numbers of seals hauled out during daylight hours; 2) to investigate any haul-out patterns in relation to environmental factors.
We had 10 different cameras set up at two different survey areas (8 at one location and 2 at another). We are studying the two survey areas separately. At one of the locations there are 8 different survey sites within the area where seals haul-out, at the other location, there are 2 different survey sites within the area.
So far we have completed 3 survey seasons as well.
Let me know if there is anything else I can provide!
27 June 2023 6:03pm
Also, for more help, here is the link to the website where an old report is shown. Navy Marine Species Monitoring :: Time-lapse Camera Surveys of Pinnipeds in Southeastern Virginia
New collaboration network - Computer vision for insects
26 June 2023 2:36pm
Overview: Depth Sensing Technologies for Camera Traps
9 November 2021 3:06pm
22 February 2022 2:24pm
For the more computationally-inclined, the Project Zamba software can also be used as a python package and the project codebase is fully available on GitHub.
22 February 2022 2:24pm
@hikinghack @Nycticebus-scientia We just ran an open-source competition on this exact question! DrivenData is a small group of data scientists, and we partnered with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) and the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF) to compile enough hand-labeled data to apply machine learning to the depth problem. In your original post, this falls under the AI Prediction Based category. The code behind all of the top-performing models is freely available on GitHub. We're hoping to make these freely available in the future in the a more user-friendly way.
@JHughes to your point about motion sensor camera traps being continuously set off -our free, open-source web application called Zamba Cloud uses machine learning to automatically sort videos by either what animal they contain or whether they are blank. You just upload a set of videos, and the web application will output a list of labels for each video! This may not address the battery drainage problem, but can help with filtering out blank videos and identifying which actually captured animals.
25 June 2023 10:33pm
(apologies for joining this thread late) Has anyone tried using the LIDAR in one of the newer iPhones so-equipped as a trail cam trigger? (e.g. iPhone12 Pro), perhaps in conjunction with a nueral network that processes the depth map looking for animal triggers? (I know this is liable to be a power-hungry trigger, for now, just looking at a proof of concept)
Osa Conservation: A Multi-Tech Toolbox of Solutions
22 June 2023 10:42am
The Wildlife Society Conference
19 June 2023 5:59am
Camera Kits available for new Snapshot USA Participants
14 June 2023 2:20pm
16 June 2023 7:39pm
This is such a cool idea! We need an aussie/international version!
Best of luck with this year's survey!
Rob
11 August 2023 12:40pm
I think this is a known problem with some Bushnell models. The battery connection only needs to be interrupted for an instant (by being moved for example) and the camera resets. If a coin battery, are they still charged?