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
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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.


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International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Key Biodiversity Areas Programme Officer, IUCN



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- @raquelgo
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American Museum of Natural History
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- @Andrew_Hill
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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.



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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.
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Saint Louis Zoo
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- @alex_rogers
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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).



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- @PshemekZ
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IT + nature
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Do you have innovative #tech4wildlife ideas that could save one of the most endangered species on earth from extinction? Apply now to join Vaquita Hack, a hackathon for students and early career conservationists! This...
10 November 2020
The Acoustic Monitoring community is one of the most active spaces on WILDLABS, and this particular aspect of conservation technology is rapidly growing, offering new ways to answer large-scale environmental questions...
28 October 2020
UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre seeks an intern to contribute to the mapping of nature’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. This position will have the opportunity to work...
13 October 2020
The miniaturisation of technology is rapidly opening up new possibilities for conservationists and environmental scientists in need of less invasive, easy to deploy solutions. University of Washington researchers have...
13 October 2020
To celebrate the first Black Mammalogists Week (starting Sunday, September 13th), we talked to four of the amazing Black scientists behind this event! Find out what they had to say about their favorite (and most...
10 September 2020
Today, WWF conservation engineering intern Ashley Rosen shares insight into the process of redesigning a camera mount for FLIR thermal cameras used by rangers in the fight against poaching. Ashley's design will become a...
24 August 2020
Our first season of Tech Tutors may have wrapped, but the connections and collaborations from these episodes are still going strong! Today, we're sharing Tech Tutor presenter Laure Joanny's recap of the most important...
20 August 2020
Today, Sustainable Fishing Challenges group leader Daniel Steadman discusses how fishing gear itself could benefit from fresh technological innovations to prevent both environmental damage and damage to species and...
19 August 2020
Funding
Protecting elephants from conservation's most pressing issues like poaching and human-wildlife conflict requires big, bold, and innovative solutions. Hackster.io, Smart Parks, Edge Impulse, Microsoft, and several other...
11 August 2020
Since 2016, ZSL’s Instant Detect team have been working on improving metal detecting sensors for anti-poaching. The team believe that using metal detecting sensors will provide a highly targeted detection of potential...
10 August 2020
As we launch our new Sustainable Fishing Challenges group in the WILDLABS community, we are excited to welcome Daniel Steadman, the group manager, to give us an overview of three major areas in which #tech4wildlife...
4 August 2020
In this case study from herpetologist Emily Taylor, we learn about the best methods and gear used to track snakes, lizards, and other reptiles and amphibians via radio-telemetry, and how these techniques have changed...
31 July 2020
November 2023
event
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Graeme, Maybe speak to a web IT expert. You may be able to have an interface on the webpage which provides the login credentials to the camera, but then passes the image (and... |
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Camera Traps, Sensors | 1 year 9 months ago | |
Does anyone know of a network camera that can stream live video direct to a browser page without requiring a password? Our Nest Outdoor... |
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Camera Traps, Sensors | 1 year 9 months ago | |
Thanks, Tim, will keep an eye on Smart Parks. Still the preferred solution from our side. |
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Sensors | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Hi all! I am a mechanical engineer working in the Aerospace Engineering department at a University, and I have the opportunity to take over... |
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Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Ben Letcher from the comment below will be able to provide much more in-depth info, but feel free to email me at eric.greenlee.96@gmail.com |
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East Africa Community, Sensors | 1 year 10 months ago | |
Hi. I'm looking for an off-the-shelf saltwater switch for an undersea application. It needs to be depth rated Is there anything like this... |
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Marine Conservation, Sensors | 2 years ago | |
Not sure exactly how your telemetry will be deployed, but if it's going to be attached to an animal in a relatively non-invasive way, you might check with zoos or aquariums that... |
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Animal Movement, Marine Conservation, Sensors | 2 years 1 month ago | |
Very cool, @BrettMargoSupplies ! Will keep an eye out for that wireless electrical fence! |
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Sensors | 2 years 1 month ago | |
Hi Jeremy, With a quick search I've found the paper linked below. It looks like equipments such as Livox MID are sufficient for plot-level analyses, but not for individual... |
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Drones, Earth Observation 101 Community, Emerging Tech, Geospatial, Sensors | 2 years 1 month ago | |
Hi @ShwetaMukundan,this could be interesting for you:https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abb0839https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwiHf2T9bLUhttps://edition.cnn.com/2020... |
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Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Sensors | 2 years 1 month ago | |
Our project in very short is, setting up a sensor network for monitoring airborne biomass, mainly insects, birds and bats in near realtime, and to develop a forecast model to be... |
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Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Animal Movement, Geospatial, Sensors | 2 years 2 months ago | |
I couldn't agree more with both of these comments tom! I'm reading hundreds (literally hundreds) of applications for open WILDLABS roles at the moment, and the ones that stand out... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones, Early Career, Sensors | 2 years 2 months 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