Thanks Steph,  

I appreciate a semi-regular summary document - it might only occasionally throw up a 'new' story for community members (depends on other media followed / library access) but it could be that one story that gives someone the next bright idea for their project (and is also no doubt appreciated by the developers / contributors).

MJ

Thanks for sharing. I see that @Alasdair Davies - ZSL Tech Specialist and co-founder of Naturebytes is a current fellow.

Hiya,

Feel free to DM me if you want any help and advice applying. The Fellowship really is life changing if you are a free thinker in a closed system and have an idea you want to explore.

I wanted to develop open and affordable conservation technologies to break down the barriers that inhibit access, and so I started the Arribada Initiative (check out the AudioMoth purchase at the moment too). You get $250k a year plus your salary on top, so it's supercharged. Plus, it's like a family. You work with other Fellows to get advice, share experiences and everyone supports each other.

If you have an idea that needs openness injected then go for it, apply today.




 

You can get a sense of Google Lens today with the Thing Translator Google AI Experiment. I recommend checking out the other experiments too. Fun and sometimes bordering on magical.

Hi. Personally, I like the idea of number 1. It could also be useful for catching invasive species such as lionfish, or maybe it could also act as a lure for them. Could species over time adapt to the presence of the phermones though? 

The third point sounds like a GMO and it's one thing when it's being proposed for crops, but it's another when it comes to wild species. That could forever alter the gene pool, similar to the debate over the farming of GMO salmon in proximity to wild populations. 

I went to one of the ERT Spatial Ecology and conservation conferences in Bristol a couple of years ago. It was invaluable - I discovered things there that I'm now using extensively at work. Plus, Mark is a great guy. I checked back recently and saw that this was happening - it sounds wonderful - have a great time! The WILDLABS.NET session looks awesome!

Here is a picture of the black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) taken by a drone, during an expedition throughout the Juruá river, in the Brazilian Amazon.

For the first time UAV was used for counting river dolphins in the Amazon. Here is the tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis) during a expedition in November 2016, in the Amazon.

WWF-Brasil in partnership with conservationdrones and Mamirauá Institute is leading a project aiming at using drones for supporting studies on river dolphins abundance. It is the first time this approach has been used.  

I'm new to wildlabs, and super excited that this forum exists. I'd worked in technology (hardware design) for about 12.5 years, but am now looking for avenues to use that tech experience towards conservation. Personally, I'm just excited to learn about how and where I can use my skills to aid conservation.

My organization—Wildlife Conservation Network—is trying to use technology to more efficiently connect the stories of our conservation parters with supporters, and increasing our reach. Video is really the theme for many of our projects this year.

We did livestreaming of our Expo last Fall on both Facebook and YouTube, and that worked out well. We'll be doing the same for our 2017 Spring expo this year. Facebook heavily promotes you on your followers’ feeds when you are live. We ended up with over 12k video views so I highly recommend that you all experiment with Facebook Live this year.

I also just picked up an DJI Osmo Mobile camera gimbal. My initial tests are pretty darn impressive, especially when travelling in a vehicle over bumpy terrain. I’ll be using it on-site in Africa in a couple of weeks, and I expect it will take the quality of the typical field video up significantly.

I'm sure the next step will be to invest in a proper lav mic.

And I’m going to be training our partners on the basics of using iMovie to create and upload their own videos to YouTube.

I know this isn't exactly wildlife tech, but I think that pretty much everyone these days has a fantastic opportunity to document the amazing, cutting-edge work you are doing to share it with the world.

It looks like the event went swimmingly @Rachel+Kramer and @jprobert! Did you have a chance to meet any other members or hear about other particularly interesting projects? (photo credit: John Probert)

It was amazing!!!!

It's a wonderful event and I hope some folks from this community might attend next time. Great opportunity to meet the conservationists. 

Hi Francesca,

I don't think I have the exact answers you are looking for, but 1) maybe where companies have switched from paper/flyer marketing to solely web-based adverts (possibly reducing waste). 2) Check out some of the applications currently being developed around blockchain technology (which underpins the digital currency Bitcoin), specifically in regards to potentially optimising efficiency or energy usage or supply chain transparency (with knock-on effects for improving environmental certification schemes). 

Provenance are a start-up currently developing such a model, and may be worth investigating. Here in Edinburgh Uni there is a also blockchain project working with Oxfam on something related to reducing waste/increasing efficiency. 

Hi Stephanie,

A postdoc friend at Newcastle University has been involved in developing and implementing Tumbling Dice's  Rana camera trap project for detecting pollinators. Not your average camera trap, Rana detects frames in which a substantial number of pixels in that frame differ from the previous frame and in which these motion-pixels are concentrated into a small area, “the blob”. They used this technology for monitoring pollinator visits to pasqueflower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) in the Chilterns. They are off to Utah to start a new job in 2017 but they could be a great candidate?

It's also well worth checking out Tumbling Dice's other projects including Daisy for automated species recognition at http://www.tumblingdice.co.uk/.