Hi Tony, I'm leading a cross disciplinary group of researchers at Deakin University in Australia to build new technology for monitoring wildlife and engage citizen scientists with collecting data. 

We have designed a video trap for monitoring reptiles and amphibians, that uses constant video and has some on-board AI to not save video with nothing in it. Works day and night (UV illumination at night), but uses a lot of power so we have a battery and solar panel arrangement. I expect this could be easily adapted to monitor cave fauna.  Let me know if you already have a solution or want to discuss idea further.

Don Driscoll

d.driscoll@deakin.edu.au

Hi Luke, 

I'll leave specific recommendations to others who are better qualified ( @Eric+Becker @Rachel+Kramer or @Alasdair - maybe you can advise?) but I did come across something yesterday that may be relevant. 

There is a live GroupGets campaign on at the moment (2 days left) for DIY-theromocam kits - not a scope but could do the trick if your budget is restricted as it's under $300 and you're willing to dabble in DIY? 

DIY-Thermocam Kit (Round 12)

The DIY-Thermocam is a do-it-yourself infrared camera, based on the FLIR Lepton long-wave infrared sensor and the popular Teensy 3.6 ARM Cortex M4 MCU. 

The aim of this project is to give private persons, educational institutes and companies access to a portable, affordable and customizable thermal imaging plattform.

There are various applications like finding heat leaks in the insulation of buildings, the analysis of electrical or mechanical components, the detection of persons / animals or even mounting it on a drone, together with the additional video out module.

Constructed as a self-assembly solution, the DIY-Thermocam allows you to take advantage of the versatile possibilities of thermal imaging and to save money at one go.

Everything, from software to hardware, is completely open-source. This allows everyone to modify or extend the functionalities of the device to their own needs.

GroupGets does now offer a complete self-assembly kit, so you don't have to worry about buying all the parts on your own.

A scientific paper is also available, giving an overview about the whole project and its capabilities.

Update: haraldg has written a nice set of tools for post-processing the thermal raw data files. Check it out here. He also published a short article about manual calibration here.

Hi @Luke_edwards - I just had a chat with my colleagues @Eric+Becker and @ColbyLoucks at WWF who will get back to you with some recommendations from experience with the thermal scopes that we've explored for anti-poaching (FLIR TK and SCOUT III). 

Great to see that you're pairing conservation dogs and thermal imaging for wildlife surveys in Australia. In order to select the most cost-effective thermal imaging scope for your needs, it's important to know the range that you require, density of vegetation and size of the species you are monitoring. Can you share a bit more information on your parameters?