Sensors already equip a range of tools to enhance monitoring capacity for conservation. Some of the higher bandwidth technologies, like camera traps and acoustic monitoring systems, have been essential elements of the conservation toolkit for decades, and thus have enough users that we've created dedicated WILDLABS groups to address them. But a whole range of lower bandwidth sensors beyond these core technologies are being increasingly integrated into conservation monitoring systems, and offer rich new insights into the wildlife and ecosystems we're all working to protect. As with many technologies, cost and access have historically been challenges to the adoption of new sensors, but with low-cost and open-source solutions on the rise, we're excited to see what the future of this space holds.
Getting Started with Sensors:
- Watch Shah Selbe's Tech Tutors episode on scaling FieldKit, an open-source conservation sensor toolbox, from a project to a successful conservation tech product.
- Check out our Virtual Meetup about Low-Cost, Open-Source Solutions in conservation tech, including a talk by Alasdair Davies on the Arribada Initiative's work with thermal sensors in early warning systems.
- For a more in-depth introduction, watch the first video in our datalogger mini-series: Freaklabs: How do I get started with Arduino?
In this group, you'll meet others who are using and innovating diverse sensors in their work, discuss ways to make sensors more effective & accessible for conservationists, learn about what sensors are already helping us accomplish in the field, and have the opportunity to ask and answer questions. Join this group to get started!
Header image: Emma Vogel, University of Tromsø
Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Behavioral Ecologist
- 1 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 14 Groups
Wildlife Drones
Wildlife Drones has developed the world’s most innovative radio animal-tracking system using drones so you can track your radio-tagged animals like never before.
- 18 Resources
- 8 Discussions
- 32 Groups
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Key Biodiversity Areas Programme Officer, IUCN
- 0 Resources
- 89 Discussions
- 8 Groups
- @raquelgo
- | (she/her/hers)
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 17 Groups
American Museum of Natural History
- 1 Resources
- 8 Discussions
- 10 Groups
- @Andrew_Hill
- | He/Him
Open Acoustic Devices
I am co-founder of Open Acoustic Devices, the creators of AudioMoth and HydroMoth. My background is Electronic Engineering and Computer Science.
- 0 Resources
- 10 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 17 Groups
PhD Candidate at University College London. Research and develop wireless sensor networks for biodiversity monitoring. Currently working on a software package for AI bioacoustics classifiers on edge device.
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 9 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 1 Groups
Saint Louis Zoo
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 13 Groups
- @alex_rogers
- | He/him/his
University of Oxford
I am a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford where I work on developing novel low-cost conservation technology (including AudioMoth and SnapperGPS).
- 0 Resources
- 21 Discussions
- 3 Groups
- @PshemekZ
- | he/him/his
IT + nature
- 0 Resources
- 7 Discussions
- 8 Groups
Article
Choosing the right IoT connectivity solution
Ellie Warren
In this article, Swarm Technologies give a detailed analysis of the tradeoffs between the most common IoT connectivity solutions to improving food production, combating climate change, optimizing supply chains and many...
19 November 2021
Funding
Opportunity: μMoth v1.1 Group buy
Open Acoustic Devices
GroupGets has a Group buy campaign for a μMoth v1.1(Round 2), that runs till Sat, 06 Nov 2021 12:55:00 PDT. The μMoth v1.1 goes for a Single-unit price of $99.99 + shipping.To join this buy, kindly visit this page
4 November 2021
Article
Technical Difficulties: Expect the Unexpected
Eric Becker and 1 more
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...
27 October 2021
Article
This article explores the use of IoT and Machine Learning Technologies in Ewaso Nyiro River, Kenya - which serves several communities as well as wildlife in Olpejeta Conservancy and Lewa Conservancy, among others. Data...
21 October 2021
Article
Technical Difficulties: Cleared for Takeoff
Eric Becker and 1 more
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...
20 October 2021
Article
Technical Difficulties: The Path to Success
Gautam Shah
In his contribution to the Technical Difficulties Editorial Series, Internet of Elephants founder Gautam Shah shares the lessons learned from challenges throughout his unique career path as an entrepreneur working and...
14 October 2021
Article
Technical Difficulties: Understanding the Realities
Eric Becker and 1 more
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 this limited content series from Ashley Rosen, you'll explore best practices for designing enclosures for communication network equipment, and learn how airflow and temperatures inform effective enclosure design....
24 September 2021
Article
GroupGets: μMoth Now Available
Open Acoustic Devices
The new μMoth is now available on GroupGets! These units are going quickly, so join the order quickly to be among the first to try the world's smallest full-spectrum acoustic development board! Join the GroupGets order...
27 May 2021
Funding
Announcing the Conservation Technology Award
Allen Institute for AI
The Conservation Technology Award is now seeking applicants! This award will provide two grants, each in the amount of $15,000 USD, to organizations that are deploying technology to advance their work in conservation....
4 May 2021
Article
WWF: Carnivore Collaring in Zambia
World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
In this article, WWF's Whitney Kent discusses how radio collaring carnivores like lions and African wild dogs helps prevent human-wildlife conflict by acting as warning devices for communities and monitoring species'...
28 April 2021
Article
Margo Gadfly: A Versatile Wildlife Deterrent
Margo Supplies - Wildlife Technology
Margo Supplies is excited to introduce the WILDLABS community to the Margo Gadfly, a new tool tested for its ability to prevent human-wildlife conflict! Read about how this hardware works, and how it protected...
31 March 2021
November 2023
16 Products
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117 Products
1 R&D Projects
81 Organisations
Recently updated products
Recently updated R&D Projects
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thanks Phil - I have e-mailed you.Peter |
|
Animal Movement, Sensors | 3 weeks ago | |
| One of our goals with explorer.land is to bridge satellite data and on-the-ground perspectives — helping teams combine field updates,... |
|
AI for Conservation, Geospatial, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 1 month ago | |
| True, the US ecosystem is a challenging space right now, for basically all sectors. We should not let the US chaos prevent us from engaging with opportunities in other... |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Connectivity, Drones, Emerging Tech, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Marine Conservation, Sensors | 1 month 1 week ago | |
| Hi WILDLABS Community,I’m Simon Juma from Kenya, working on a project to track and manage Red-billed Quelea birds, which... |
|
AI for Conservation, Sensors | 2 months ago | |
| Thank you! I will follow up by email. |
+8
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Animal Movement, Conservation Dogs, East Africa Community, Geospatial, Sensors, Women in Conservation Tech Programme (WiCT) | 2 months 1 week ago | |
| Thanks Jack, that's an interesting repo. |
|
Sensors | 2 months 2 weeks ago | |
| Sure, Akio! Happy to answer!1. Yes, something like that. The few existing i guess applied already for GPS collar (literally collar) that usually for big cats and some other big... |
|
Sensors, Animal Movement, Open Source Solutions | 2 months 2 weeks ago | |
| How much does it cost to incorporate machine learning into your conservation drone geospatial analysis? How does it speed up your workflow... |
|
Conservation Tech Training and Education, Drones, Geospatial, Open Source Solutions, Sensors, Software Development | 2 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Thanks so much for all the advice!! This seems very achievable. We don't mind having the fibre optic fixed in place as we planned to have a shorter one specifically for this... |
|
Sensors, Marine Conservation | 2 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hi Dan, Not right now but I can envision many uses. A key problem in RS is data streams for validation and training of ML models, its really not yet a solved problem. Any... |
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Emerging Tech, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Camera Traps, Connectivity, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Geospatial, Sensors | 3 months ago | |
| @Eric24 The use case is as I wrote to Patrick: "a parent unit in the centre of a conservation area which is to recieve one way packets from child sensor units spread around the... |
|
Sensors | 3 months 1 week ago | |
| Hi Lucille,Thank you for your reply! We’d be really interested in learning more about your developments. We’ll contact you soon to arrange a discussion.Thank you.Best regards,... |
|
Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Sensors | 3 months 1 week ago |
Text Messages from Teenage Gannets
25 April 2016 12:00am
Eggs Eggs and more Eggs
2 March 2016 1:05pm
Underwater sensors
18 March 2016 12:39am
Could Big Data Have Saved Cecil the Lion?
4 January 2016 12:07pm
12 February 2016 7:16pm
It's very interesting what you say about the strength of a name. I do think that anthropomorphism can be a good thing in the case of conservation. By giving Cecil a name and a life story (incidentally a very cosy British name, which is interesting in itself), it brings the issue into emotional focus. We are attracted to characters and stories, not data. The plight of a named lion strikes a stronger chord than the numbing statistic of 600 "un-named" lions dying every year.
So do we care more about nature if we make anthropomorphise it? I think yes, as it creates a relatable personal connection with our own lives.
I'd like to get in touch with you next week as this is an area I am very interested in exploring and I hope I can be of help. Paul
14 March 2016 4:37pm
We're just starting to look a lot at Storytelling in Wildbook (http://www.wildbook.org).
This is what a data profile looks like in Wildbook:
http://www.whaleshark.org/individuals.jsp?number=A-001
While we allow for basic anthropomorphism via nicknaming, it's still a very data centric view of what a combined group of reserchers knows about the animal.
We have experimented with social media profiles which interestingly have an analogous data schema as mark-recapture:
http://fb.wildme.org/wildme/public/profile/WS-A-001
But we want to go ever further with storytelling mediums (e.g., story maps?) that can be automated from scientific data input, especially where cit sci data and reserch data can be reliably mixed.
So in addition to a name, we want to build a relationship through a portrayal of its life history and even potentially a view of the social network of the animal participates in (if such data can be shared safely.).
16 March 2016 7:22am
That's great Jason. I think your approach can be very successful. I'm a little bit familiar with Wild Book through my contacts at IBEIS, who I believe you work with quite closely. I'd love to see how the work we are doing at Internet of Elephants can incorporate whale shark data. I'll message you separately to discuss.
An Internet of pigeons?
14 March 2016 4:16pm
Ecotech Grants from the Captain Planet Foundation
18 February 2016 12:00am
Bringing Conservation Technology to Life
17 February 2016 12:00am
Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge: Winners Announced!
22 January 2016 12:00am
Deep Coral Reef Exploration and Discovery: Two-way Technological Flow
24 December 2015 12:00am
Cheap Space, DIY Imaging and Big Data
21 December 2015 12:00am
The Impact of the Internet of Things
10 December 2015 12:00am
The Social Lives of Conservation Technologies and Why They Matter
2 November 2015 12:00am
24 March 2016 4:42pm
Latest news about this project was picked up by the BBC world service for a short interview
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03nwl8g
You can also read more here:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/build-an-electronic-vulture-egg