With experts across the WILDLABS community working with every type of technology and in every imaginable environment, our platform is a great place to find advice and resources on choosing what tools are right for your conservation project. Whether you're in the market to try a new camera trap model, want to experiment with drones for the first time, or need help weighing the pros and cons of data management tools, there's someone in the WILDLABS community who can help you make a smart and informed choice!
The Community Base is our general gathering group. It's the place where we cover more general, big picture topics in conservation technology - ones that don't fit neatly into our other groups. If you don't know where to post something, just post it in this group. Our moderators will move it if needed!
At our Community Base, you'll find updates from the WILDLABS team on upcoming events and opportunities, and have the chance to shape our programs and platform with your opinions. And most importantly, the Community Base is also home to our Welcome to WILDLABS thread, the best place to introduce yourself to us and the community. Stop by and tell us what you're working on!
Whether you're new to WILDLABS and want to know where to begin, or you're a longtime member looking for a handy bank of resources, our Getting Started on WILDLABS thread will be your one-stop guide to getting the most out of our platform.
Want to find out more about WILDLABS? Check out our recent community call:
Header image: Ana Verahrami/Elephant Listening Project
Group curators
- @TaliaSpeaker
- | She/her
WILDLABS & World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
I'm the Executive Manager of WILDLABS at WWF



- 23 Resources
- 64 Discussions
- 31 Groups
- @alexrood
- | she/her
WILDLABS & World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
I'm the WILDLABS Communications and Community Management Associate Specialist at WWF-US





- 149 Resources
- 95 Discussions
- 6 Groups
No showcases have been added to this group yet.
- @Britneecheney
- | her/she
My name is Britnee Cheney. I am a keeper and trainer for three North American River Otters at an aquarium in Utah. I have recently started a conservation program for this species in the wild and am looking for resources and mentors to help me with my camera trapping.


- 0 Resources
- 13 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @Robincrocs
- | He/Him//El//Ele
Wildlife biologist, works with Caimans and Crocodiles
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 15 Groups
PhD student at the University of Wuerzburg, working on the influence of climate change on animal migration, especially the Northern Bald Ibis.
- 1 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @jstalker
- | she/her
Herpetologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

- 0 Resources
- 5 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- @StephODonnell
- | She / Her



- 196 Resources
- 676 Discussions
- 31 Groups
- @Rob_Appleby
- | He/him
Wild Spy
Whilst I love everything about WILDLABS and the conservation tech community I am mostly here for the badges!!





- 1 Resources
- 315 Discussions
- 11 Groups
- @CathyNj
- | She
Catherine Njore is a seasoned Cartographer with over 18yrs experience and specializing in children cartography. She recently designed a Cartography: Fun with Maps Program(CFMP); a program that assists children to learn how to draw, read and use maps effectively.

- 7 Resources
- 56 Discussions
- 6 Groups
Robotic engineer, working on environmental and biodiversity monitoring.

- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 3 Groups
I work in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The focus of my NGO is to facilitate the scientific study of the natural and cultural resources of the cenotes and underground rivers of our region.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
Octophin Digital
Director at Octophin, building software for wildlife conservation. Including WILDLABS.



- 2 Resources
- 24 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- @DeepakSathyanarayan
- | he/his
Deepak is an experienced professional who has served in multiple leadership roles in technology, science, product development, and engineering programs. He has proven expertise in shaping and executing technology strategies across defense, space, health, and environment sectors.


- 0 Resources
- 5 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @sam.cope.king
- | she/her
ProtectedSeas
Marine Monitor (M2) Senior Scientist



- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 5 Groups
To celebrate our 9th Annual #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge happening this week, we’re taking a look at past and current submissions that feature the fastest growing areas of conservation tech: movement ecology, AI,...
7 August 2024
To celebrate our 9th Annual #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge starting yesterday, we’re taking a look at past and current submissions that feature the fastest growing areas of conservation tech: movement ecology, AI,...
5 August 2024
The Conservation Leadership Program's Future Conservation Awards calls for proposals from teams of early-career conservationists and targeting at-risk species from the IUCN Red List.
5 August 2024
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund ( CEPF ) calls for letters of inquiry ( LOIs ) for both small and large grants. Small grants are between $5K and $50K. Large grants are greater than $50K. Applications can be in...
4 August 2024
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) calls for Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) for organizations that address the conservation of biodiversity related to climate change. The budget allows for six to ten awards.
4 August 2024
The Turtle Conservation Fund is currently accepting applications for its grant program that focus on endangered tortoises and freshwater turtles
4 August 2024
Get to know the judges for the 9th Annual #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge!
1 August 2024
Black Mammalogists Week 2024 (blackmammalogists.com) will be held Sept. 15-21 and we want to collaborate with conservation tech experts to make our 3rd virtual event a success! If interested, fill out the linked form;...
31 July 2024
Are you an aspiring wildlife conservationist with a passion for apex predators?, BushVeld Biodiversity Research Centre is looking for you!!!
30 July 2024
Human Wildlife Solutions is looking for you!!!. Send your application materials by 15th August 2024.
30 July 2024
Tambor Bay Turtles (TBT) is looking for you. Help save the turtles!!!. Visit Volunteerworld.com for more info!!
30 July 2024
Christmas island visitor centre is looking for you!!. Send your resume and cover letter at office@christmas.net.au
30 July 2024
October 2025
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November 2025
February 2026
April 2026
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September 2024
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi loveness Comprehending the given answers, I hope this link will help you understand more about SMART. its contain courses of SMART traininghttps://smart.... |
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Community Base, Conservation Tech Training and Education, East Africa Community, Software Development | 10 months 3 weeks ago | |
Dear Alex Rood,Thank you so much for the advice. I’ll make sure to regularly check the career openings on resources page. I appreciate your support. |
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East Africa Community, Community Base, Early Career, Human-Wildlife Coexistence | 11 months 1 week ago | |
Hello Nora, I hope the link below can provide you with some information. |
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Climate Change, Community Base, Women in Conservation Tech Programme (WiCT), East Africa Community | 11 months 1 week ago | |
Answer: We envision this Q&A functionality to be a similar format to the existing discussion post comments. We are open to discussing whether these are visible to all members... |
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Community Base | 11 months 4 weeks ago | |
Thank you for your valuable insights. I, too, am eager to hear more from those actively working on this issue. |
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Community Base, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Protected Area Management Tools | 1 year ago | |
Hi Asia @blackmammalogistsweek :) Pleasure to connect with you! I'm part of the WILDLABS team here, supporting our East Africa Community.Thanks for sharing details on the... |
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Community Base | 1 year ago | |
Hi César, Is there a geographic area you're limited to? That would help to narrow down options. I would recommend reaching out perhaps to the Kitzes Lab, Sound Forest... |
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Acoustics, Citizen Science, Community Base, Early Career, Marine Conservation | 1 year ago | |
Hi everyoneI have enjoyed attending the Variety Hour and learning about synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and the way it detect snares. This... |
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Protected Area Management Tools, Community Base, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Ethics of Conservation Tech | 1 year ago | |
Very interesting topic |
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Citizen Science, Community Base, Open Source Solutions, Geospatial | 1 year ago | |
Like to introduce to you Maungakiekie Songbird - a urban based community project that has the goal to enhance the natural... |
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Community Base | 1 year ago | |
Thanks so much, Alex! |
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Community Base | 1 year 1 month ago | |
It would be great to address data collection, handling and storage. It starts with keeping good records of field deployments so that devices can be refound and helps at the time... |
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Community Base, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Early Career | 1 year 1 month ago |
Let's save our environment
31 January 2024 12:52pm
Power managment/Recharging System and Communication System
2 January 2024 4:06pm
26 January 2024 9:03am
Power usage for microcontrollers with solar is much more manageable. For Raspberry Pi's and higher it gets expensive and big.
I'm quite impressed by the specs from the Goal Zero Yeti devices. This can have high capacity and be charged with Solar. Not small though. And the price is not in proportion to the Pi's.
So this 200x model for example, would be close to 16 days running the audio recorder. Let's say 10. without solar. Add solar? Depends on the size of the panels I guess. Power usage for mobile networking? Depends on how much you transmit.
Probably some well documented experiments would be really nice for people here. Sounds like something nice for the next set of grants :)
26 January 2024 2:11pm
Real nice video. I'll have another look in the weekend in detail.
Need advice - image management and tagging
12 January 2024 7:55pm
15 January 2024 8:47pm
Interesting, Iʻll give it a shot. Looks like this could save me some time.
Thanks for the explanation @wade!
24 January 2024 5:16pm
I have no familiarity with Lightroom, but the problem you describe seems like a pretty typical data storage and look up issue. This is the kind of problem that many software engineers deal with on a daily bases. In almost every circumstance this class of problem is solved using a database.
In fact, a potentially useful analysis is that the Lightroom database is not providing the feature set you need.
It seems likely that you are not looking for a software development project, and setting up you own DB would certainly require some effort, but if this is a serious issue for your work, you hope to scale your work up, or bring many other participants into your project, it might make sense to have an information system that better fits your needs.
There are many different databases out there optimized for different sorts of things. For this I might suggest taking a look at MongoDB with GridFS for a couple of reasons.
- It looks like you meta data is in JSON format. Many DBs are JSON compatible, but Mongo is JSON native. It is especially good at storing and retrieving JSON data. Its JSON search capabilities are excellent and easy to use. It looks like you could export your data directly from Lightroom into Mongo, so it might be pretty easy actually.
- Mongo with the GridFS package is an excellent repository for arbitrarily large image files.
- It is straightforward to make a Mongo database accessible via a website.
- They are open source (in a manner of speaking) and you can run it for free.
Disclaimer: I used to work for MongoDB. I don't anymore and I have no vested interest at all, but they make a great product that would really crush this whole class of problem.
25 January 2024 8:32am
Hi!
I would take a look at
Although developed for camera trap imagery, it is by no means restricted to such.
Cheers,
Lars
How are Outdoor Fire Detection Systems Adapted for Small Forest Areas, Considering the Predominance of Indoor Fire Detectors?
8 January 2024 4:27pm
22 January 2024 6:35pm
Fire detection is a sort of broad idea. Usually people detect the products of fire, and most often this is smoke.
Many home fire detectors in the US use a radioactive source and measure the absorption of the radiation by the air. More smoke means more absorption.
For outdoor fire detection, PM2.5 can be a very good smoke proxy, and outdoor PM2.5 sensing is pretty accessible.
This one is very popular in my area.
Classic - Air Quality Monitor | AQI PM2.5 Indoor/Outdoor Sensor – PurpleAir
The PurpleAir Classic air quality monitor is the original and popular PurpleAir sensor. It measures real-time PM2.5 concentrations for residential, commercial, or industrial use and can be installed indoors or outdoors. Built-in WiFi enables the air quality measurement device to transmit data to the real-time PurpleAir AQI Map, which is stored and made available to any smart device. The PA-II is available in two editions. The SD edition includes an onboard SD logger to record and store data without a WiFi connection. Please note: This sensor does not come with a power adaptor. Find a suitable OUTDOOR-rated adaptor here or use your own USB power source (any 5V, 1.2 to 2.4 amp adaptor will work).
Kenya Forest Club, Central Region – Kenya Forest Club
20 January 2024 2:53pm
Happy New Year WILDLabbers! What are you looking forward to in 2024?
2 January 2024 11:31am
2 January 2024 4:01pm
Excited for COP16 later this year in Colombia!
Other events of potential interest -
- World Biodiversity Forum
- European Congress on Conservation Biology
- North American Congress for Conservation Biology
- World Ecoacoustics Congress
- African Bioacoustics Conference
- (virtual) World Species Congress
- UNFCCC COP29
3 January 2024 8:48am
Some really great events to look forward to, thanks so much @carlybatist for sharing these!
Anyone going/presenting/talking at SICB?
1 January 2024 9:11pm
Apply to Beta test Instant Detect 2.0
11 May 2023 10:55am
21 December 2023 3:48am
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 conservationists rate for the service, which could help to further subsidize the project. (Referring to your statement here: https://wildlabs.net/discussion/instant-detect-20-and-related-cost)
Seeking Host Organisations for Travel Scholarship Application
19 December 2023 12:54am
20 December 2023 3:07am
Hi Eva,
Me and my colleagues run a small NGO based on Yogyakarta in Indonesia, although our projects are spread around the country. One of our active project is working with the movement ecology of Sunda gharials in Berbak-Sembilang National Park. One of the other is for Malayan Giant Turtle conservation using one-plan approach, which we are planning to start in situ phase. We can't give you promise about anything, but are able to be the host organization and would love to talk the opportunity!
Cheers,
Dhanu
WILDLABS Colorado Conservation Tech Meetup
19 December 2023 12:04am
Watch now - The State of Conservation Technology: 3 Year Trends
13 December 2023 5:25pm
WILDLABS.net Scheduled Website Maintenance
Conservation of Kikuyu Escarpment Forest
1 December 2023 12:38pm
WILDLABS Awards 2024: Further Information
1 December 2023 11:00am
WILDLABS Awards 2024: Supporting accessible, affordable, and effective innovation for nature
1 December 2023 11:00am
WILDLABS AWARDS 2024 Webinar
30 November 2023 12:17pm
Wishlist for kit in a field-based Research Station or tech testing space?
27 November 2023 10:41am
28 November 2023 3:25am
Regine Weckauf over on linkedin:
'Little to do with research and tech development, but given how hard it is to attract and retain experienced staff to field based positions, I know it makes a difference how nice the space is. Just because it's the "field", shouldn't mean staff living in basic conditions, regardless of how many times we've been told to see it as a badge of honor. If you have the money, put in nice bathrooms, kitchen, living spaces, and private accommodation. Maybe even a nursery? It creates more local employment opportunities and people genuinely want to visit.'
28 November 2023 2:25pm
Love the idea for in-house gear/supplies! It can be SOO difficult to travel with batteries, electronics parts with airline regs, country policies, etc. and shipping recorders/trail cams/etc. gets VERY (prohibitively) pricey in some countries with customs and taxes. Would be great to have an in-country place to source that kind of equipment.
Housing educational resources related to that tech (in the form of people, print materials, computer tutorials) in-house would be similarly awesome. Particularly/especially in local languages.
Having in-country wet labs as well helps the eDNA/genetics folks, since sample import/export permitting can be (always seems to be?!) a nightmare, so if you can even just do PCR and/or extractions in-country that helps a ton.
In terms of overall field-station-wishlist - honestly, just the promise of continued funding and staff. Every field station I've been to or worked at is in a constant search for enough money to get through the next month/year, because the funding comes in the establish a station but then not to maintain it long-term. It's not sexy for a wishlist per se, but boy is it over-looked and much-needed.
@hikinghack from Dinalab would probably have lots of good insights on this!
29 November 2023 7:59pm
My suggestion would probably be a 3D printer and Solder Station with a stock of common components. With those two things you can solve most problems.
NSERC-CREATE Graduate Programs
27 November 2023 10:36am
Atos and WWF partner up to leverage technology to support biodiversity conservation
27 November 2023 9:32am
Freshwater and Community Conservation Remote Externship
27 November 2023 8:31am
ICOTEQ launch TAGRANGER® system of products
23 November 2023 1:25pm
Catch up with The Variety Hour: November 2023
16 November 2023 12:59pm
Have your say: Take the 2023 WILDLABS State of Conservation Technology Survey
15 November 2023 9:20am
The State of Conservation Technology 2023: Five Key Findings
15 November 2023 9:20am
The Ultimate Biodiversity Fact Sheet. 14 stats to convince people about the importance of nature.
9 November 2023 5:10pm
Insight; a secure online platform designed for sharing experiences of conservation tool use.
7 November 2023 1:01pm
A SPOTLIGHT ON CUTTING-EDGE BIOMONITORING TECHNOLOGIES
31 October 2023 9:09am
15 November 2023 6:10pm
31 January 2024 7:17pm
Takeaways from the First-ever Africa Climate Summit: Conservation Technology is Still New(ish)
27 October 2023 11:54am
Introducing The Debrief: Season 1
27 October 2023 10:48am
26 January 2024 8:49am
"Seychelles and South Africa did not allow Starlink to operate"
This is not good, has implications for anti-poaching measures.