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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Careers
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
Link
Camera traps often monitor larger animals, so passive infrared sensor tends to miss small and fast species like mustelids. Researchers tested the Mostela against a tree-mounted camera trap to compare performance and...
8 February 2024
Article
HWC Tech Challenge update 2020
Lars Holst Hansen
An update on @Alasdair and @adanger24's HWC project
11 January 2024
Link
Underwater camera trap for amphibian - Call for early users
Xavier Mestdagh
Hi! CAMPHIBIAN project develops an underwater camera trap for amphibian. The interest has been proven on newts and grass snake in NW Europe. We are looking for early users worldwide, diversify target species and...
13 December 2023
Careers
Project support officer - Conservation Tech
Tom August
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
Article
Paving the Way for Women: LoRaWAN Technology in Akagera National Park with Clementine Uwamahoro
Esther Githinji and 1 more
Read our interview with Clementine Uwamahoro, African Parks’ Country Manager in Conservation Technology overlooking technology operations for both Akagera National Park and Nyungwe National Park.
29 November 2023
Article
ICOTEQ launch TAGRANGER® system of products
Craig Rackstraw
TagRanger® is a state-of-the-art wildlife finding, monitoring and tracking solution for research, conservation and environmental professionals. With superior configurability for logging data, reporting location and...
23 November 2023
Link
Eliminatha, WiCT 2023 Tanzania
ELIMINATHA AMBROSS
Passionate wildlife researcher and tech user, making strides in Grumeti, the heart of western Serengeti,Tanzania, using Camera Traps to gain priceless insights into the lives of this unique fauna and contributing...
21 November 2023
Careers
Lisanne Petracca is hiring TWO technicians within the SPEC Lab Ocelot Research Program to start January 17, 2024.
16 November 2023
Link
A secure platform designed for those working to monitor & protect natural resources. Insight facilitates sharing experience, knowledge & tools to increase efficiency & effectiveness in conservation. By...
7 November 2023
Link
Researchers in Nepal are using vertical cameras and AI technology to track and profile individual spotted deer (Axis axis), similar to the methods used for tigers.
30 October 2023
Article
With the rising threats to biodiversity such as wildlife crime, climate change and human-wildlife conflict today, wildlife monitoring technologies have become vital to study movement ecology, behaviour patterns, changes...
25 October 2023
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Wildlife Drones
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| Very nice video in the link you posted btw:Here is another less artistic one: |
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Camera Traps, AI for Conservation | 1 year 4 months ago | |
| I'm also here for this. This is my first comment... I've been lurking for a while.I have 20 years of professional knowledge in design, with the bulk of that being software design... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Software Development | 1 year 4 months ago | |
| Yep, here:Currently it only installs on older Jetsons as in the coming weeks I’ll finish the install code for current jetsons.Technically speaking, if you were an IT specialist... |
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Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps | 1 year 4 months ago | |
| HiWe are sharing the pipeline for automated annotation and training of ReWilding Dataset. Blog:https://www.... |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 4 months ago | |
| Thank you for sharing! Super interesting, as we don't see many underwater stereo cameras! We also use Blue Robotics components in our projects and have found them reliable and... |
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Sensors, Camera Traps, Marine Conservation | 1 year 4 months ago | |
| Will you accept personal/hobbyist focused on conservation on their small plots of land (10-100 acres)?I would, and know others, who would happily pay more than the official... |
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Camera Traps, Climate Change, Community Base, Connectivity, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Sensors, Wildlife Crime | 1 year 5 months ago | |
| Oh I see recent threads on the topic. Sharing here to link people over. |
+19
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Camera Traps | 1 year 5 months ago | |
| Hi Titus,I've used latching solenoids as a release in a fresh water application. The product linked to is the one I have used, but has been discontinued (it's been quite a while... |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 5 months ago | |
| Hi,This is a really late answer but I was new to wildlabs then. I have a security appliance that uses state of the AI models and user defined polygon areas of interest that... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict, Camera Traps, Sensors | 1 year 5 months ago | |
| Hi there!, You should definitely check out VIAME, which includes a video annotation tool in addition to deep learning neural network training and deployment. It has a user... |
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Camera Traps | 1 year 5 months ago | |
| Featuring some of the very best spider video you'll ever see.. @JayStafstrom has been pushing the boundaries of camera technology,... |
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Camera Traps, Sensors | 1 year 5 months ago | |
| Also, take a look at TrapTagger. It has integration with WildMe. |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 1 year 5 months ago |
Catch up with The Variety Hour: June 2023
16 June 2023 11:43am
Sustained Effort: Out with the New, In with the Old
Rob Appleby
and 1 more
14 June 2023 10:00am
Cuddelink Camera Issue?
12 June 2023 4:33pm
Camera-trapping provides new insights on scent marking in the large-antlered muntjac
12 June 2023 5:30am
Wildlife Monitoring Engineer
8 June 2023 4:54pm
Camera Traps to monitor direct seeding reforestation
5 June 2023 10:17am
Looking for AI volunteer positions
24 May 2023 5:41am
Scientists step up hunt for ‘Asian unicorn’, one of world’s rarest animals
18 May 2023 6:25pm
Scientists step up hunt for ‘Asian unicorn’, one of world’s rarest animals | Endangered species | The Guardian
The saola is so elusive that no biologist has seen one in the wild. Now they are racing to find it, so they can save it
Camera trap pics of rare species in Vietnam raise conservation hopes
18 May 2023 6:17pm
Mbaza AI recognized by UNESCO & new team member
17 May 2023 8:49pm
What are the waterfowls?
14 May 2023 3:26pm
Collar Tracking vs. Camera Traps for Monitoring Mexican Wolves
5 May 2023 9:08pm
Camera Trap Data Management Survey
3 May 2023 10:28pm
Best Trail Cameras 2023 - Forbes Vetted
26 April 2023 2:53pm
Best Trail Cameras 2024 - Forbes Vetted
The best trail cameras are integral tools for outdoor enthusiasts and hunters alike. Here are our recommendations after extensive research.
Video: Virginia Tech tracking bobcats to preserve wildlife
26 April 2023 2:45pm
Congo Basin activity?
30 March 2023 9:14pm
25 April 2023 5:08pm
greetings!
i sent you a PM regarding this, feel free to contact me however is most convenient for you -
regards,
chris
Indigenous groups working with camera traps in Latin America
19 April 2023 10:53pm
21 April 2023 1:27pm
Hello,
Happy to put you in contact with some of my grantees working in Mexico who have extensive experience in capacity building for indigenous communities focused in species monitoring, including: Eco-Creando Soluciones, AC, Bosque Antiguo, AC, Bioconciencia, AC. Let me know.
Best,
Amanda
21 April 2023 2:23pm
I've heard that Alianza Ceibo and Amazon Frontlines use camera traps in the Amazonian regions of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru to monitor poaching and land encroachment. You can reach out to them directly or I can put you in touch with one of their program managers if you'd like (I only have her # and don't want to post her personal info directly on here though).
21 April 2023 8:22pm
Great, thank you both! I'll follow up for introductions/ contact info
Catch up with The Variety Hour: April 2023
21 April 2023 10:42am
Camera traps, AI, and Ecology
14 April 2023 10:08am
7 June 2023 9:42am
1 August 2023 10:46am
1 September 2023 8:06am
The 59th Annual Meeting of Illinois Chapter of The Wildlife Society
12 April 2023 5:24am
Analyze difference in time events in camera trap data
14 March 2023 9:50pm
24 March 2023 6:20pm
Adrían - You might try looking at the methods for analyzing temporal interactions described in these two papers. These will hopefully provide you a starting point into the literature. Best wishes - Russ
Rahel Sollmann. 2018. A gentle introduction to camera-trap data analysis. African Journal of Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.12557
Justin P Suraci, et al. 2022. Beyond spatial overlap: harnessing new technologies to resolve the complexities of predator–prey interactions. Oikos. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.09004
6 April 2023 3:49pm
Hi Adrián,
Are you looking at ways to categorize visits as independent? or the methodology and theory of independence?
If you simply want a way to categorize visits, software managing camera trap images sometimes have this option. For example, Camelot can assess independence based on a time threshold.
6 April 2023 6:24pm
Hi Adrián,
Bracis et al. {recurse} package in R allow those time between visits comparisons. I had problems running the package with my data, though.
Recommendations needed: software for collating camera trap images
25 October 2020 8:54pm
28 March 2023 9:32pm
Hey Sami! Not sure what their needs are at WildlifeInsights. But would love to contribute in any capacity. I'm a software developer with a Masters in Zoology and experience Wildlife research. I have worked on several project integrating with TensorFlow and other ML models-including ChatGPT. Any chance they are looking for folks to staff their venture? Cheers!
-Dévi
6 April 2023 12:12pm
Hi @StephODonnell , I don't know if it's just me, but the two bulleted links you posted above are broken?
6 April 2023 12:34pm
Ah yes, these must have broken when we moved over to our new site. They should work now - thanks for flagging!
Who's going to ESA in Portland this year?
31 March 2023 9:27am
4 April 2023 9:58am
That sounds great. I think you should encourage people to bring a bit of tech with them, can be a good conversation starter/ice-breaker
4 April 2023 4:04pm
Good idea! I've got a ransom assortment of different acoustic recorders I can bring along
5 April 2023 11:58pm
Indeed, I'll be there too! I like to meet new conservation friends with morning runs, so I will likely organize a couple of runs, maybe one right near the conference, and one somewhere in a nearby park where we can look for wildlife. The latter would probably be at an obscenely early hour, so we can drive somewhere, ideally see elk (there are elk within 25 minutes of Portland!), and still get back in time for the morning sessions.
Computer Vision Competitions on Natural-World datasets
5 April 2023 4:26pm
AI for European Wildlife Challenge
29 March 2023 10:39am
17 April 2023 6:06pm
Global shortage of Raspberry Pis - What are the alternatives
3 November 2022 10:27am
28 March 2023 9:37pm
Have you considered Arduinos?
29 March 2023 10:13am
UPDATE: The Banana Pi didnt work out for us as it was not possible to track back all the components and ensure that they were responsibly sourced. The Rock board did work for us and we were able to port our system onto this. We will be rolling out units using this over the summer. It also looks like Raspberry Pis are coming back on line and we were able to secure a bulk order for deliver mid-summer
29 March 2023 10:14am
Yes, but for our needs that are not powerful enough
Exploring storage options for mass data collection
22 March 2023 3:20am
22 March 2023 7:36pm
Hi Adam!
I mostly live within the ecoacoustics space so I'll just speak on the hydrophone part of your request; Arbimon is a free web/cloud-based platform with unlimited storage for audio files. We've got an uploader app as well for mass-uploading lots of files. There's also a bunch of spectrogram visualization/annotation tools and analysis workflows available. It's AWS running under the hood.
I have some experience working directly with AWS & Microsoft Azure, and I've found personally that AWS was more user-friendly and intuitive for the (fairly simplistic) kinds of tasks I've done.
27 March 2023 5:23am
Camera trap. Snow Leopard reserve Kyrgyzstan. Solar+4G+Video. System upgrade.
15 December 2022 3:32pm
16 March 2023 6:05am
Hi Kumar
I wanted to contact you about the possibility of collaborating in the project I mentioned before. Where is good to contact you? info@wavelinknetworks.com ? You can also email me from our website www.baiboosun.com
Looking forward from hearing from you
Luciano Foglia
24 March 2023 9:14pm
Look into evorta.
It is an Australian company that is doing exactly this.
You can.
- Have an offline camera that can be trained to ID specific species,
- send you just the photos of those species via satellite
- Or if you can get 4g send you all the photos to their online database.
- They also have an online database that allows you to analyse the data in real time.
- They can also hack normal camera traps so they can send photos back to the main unit to process and send valid photos. That way you only need one ‘smart’ camera. All the rest can be your exsisting cameras. You just need to use your sd card slot.
Here is an article here
Best to contact him through email.
I’ll send it to you privately
25 March 2023 1:11pm
The eVorta website is still VERY empty but will be worth keeping an eye out for for sure. At first, from the notes above, I thought that this was Edge AI but in the article linked to it seems that the ML and animal ID happens after 4G download of the images.
I will just throw a link to relatively recent paper where a standard cameratrap was "hacked" and Edge AI ID could send alerts via Iridium: Real-time alerts from AI-enabled camera traps using the Iridium satellite network and here is more from some of the authors of that paper:
AI camera trap - Hack The Planet
https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/61546c72d81a7d6553fe6126/615f0b3c312601105380e243_Screenshot%202021-10-07%20at%2016.57.54.jpg
24 May 2023 3:45pm
Hi Donya! You might check out the Conservation Tech Directory to see what projects/organizations/tools best align with your interests and skills.