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
- @bumbleben
- | He/Him
Junior dev in a bioacoustics startup, interested in all forms of remote sensing and biologging
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Jack of all trades and master of none
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- @Thomas_Luypaert
- | He/him
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
Ecological monitoring enthusiast with a focus on ecological and conservation research
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The Nature Conservancy
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- @valeria
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Studio Pixel
AI integration architect, AI product manager. I've built the front-end of this website 😁
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Purdue University



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Tech 4 Conservation
President, Tech 4 Conservation
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- 18 Groups
- @donovantye
- | He/Him
Savanna Ecologist, Field Station Director and Head of Conservation Tech Projects for Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS).
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Xerius Tracking
Concerned by wildlife protection and advanced technologies

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Wild Me



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Adventure Scientists is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Bozeman, MT that equips scientists and researchers with high-quality data collected from the outdoors that are crucial to addressing environmental challenges around the world.
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Applications are now open for a second round of the £10 million UK Seafood Innovation Fund to transform the future landscape of the seafood industry.
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Microbial fuel cells, developed by Plant-powered Camera Trap Challenge winners Plant-E, have been used successfully with Xnor.ai's energy harvesting camera technology to capture what are thought to be the world's first...
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The European Space Agency’s “Environmental Crimes” thematic call offers support and funding of up to €60,000 per activity to companies looking to develop services tackling illegal water, air and land polution using...
22 August 2019
Sharing failure, tech support for conservation, roaming mentors, conservation tech hype cycles and developing new road maps - participants in our tech workshops at ICCB 2019 shared an abundance of ideas for how to shape...
21 August 2019
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In this From the Field interview, we talk to Melissa Schiele, a tech whiz, marine ecologist, and conservationist at the Zoological Society of London. She shares with us about her work helping to develop the first-ever...
10 June 2019
The WILDLABS TECH HUB is supporting technology solutions tackling the illegal wildlife trade, in collaboration with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Digital Catapult, Satellite Applications Catapult, Amazon Web...
4 June 2019
Ol Pejeta Conservancy partners with conservation and technology organisations to kick-start a research and innovation centre for wildlife conservation
31 May 2019
FLIR announces the launch of their Conservation Discount Program, which offers projects the opportunity to qualify for a 30% discount on select thermal, visible, and maritime products. Share your conservation plan and...
23 May 2019
This webinar recording will provide a brief overview of current SMART functionality, highlight case studies of large scale and innovative SMART deployments, and detail how SMART is embracing and leveraging new...
21 May 2019
In February, we released an open call for the WILDLABS TECH HUB, offering 3 months of support for solutions using technolgy to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. We were overwhelmed by an incredible 37 submissions,...
13 May 2019
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Would certainly be cool to see a tutorial on this! Looking forward to that! |
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Marine Conservation, Sensors | 3 years 8 months ago | |
Almost done with the trap alarms. I added an additional buzzer (with internal circuitry) to get more noise. The added benefit is that the slightly different tunes creates... |
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Sensors | 4 years ago | |
Hi Barry, I am tinkering with similar edge devices and aspirations! I recently acquired the Jetson Nano to start testing some aspects of the BearID Project software pipeline.... |
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Connectivity, Sensors | 4 years 2 months ago | |
Thanks for the paper Harold, this looks like a possibility. Especially if there's a way to make bespoke detectors |
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Sensors | 4 years 2 months ago | |
Hi everyone, I'm building some small audio attachments to pop onto Vectronics collars. Does anyone have dummy or... |
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Sensors | 4 years 2 months ago | |
Really interesting chat. I was looking at this "eTape" to measure inundation on marine turtle nests. https://www.adafruit.com/product/463 Will give you water presence... |
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Sensors | 4 years 6 months ago | |
Have you ever wanted to get a sample from the top of a tree, without having to climb it or shoot it out with a shotgun? Would it... |
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Sensors | 4 years 6 months ago | |
Hello Rob, I have seen the bracelet style used on large mammals with mixed success and failure. The main considerations are terrain the animal uses, and fitting the bracelet... |
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Sensors | 4 years 6 months ago | |
Amazing stuff Andrew! The dips in light idea made me think of exoplanet hunting straight away! Such a cool idea!! |
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Sensors | 4 years 7 months ago | |
Hi Akiba No worries, thanks for responding! I'd love to delve into more detail on this once the new series has started and I have an idea of the tools and kit required!... |
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Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 4 years 8 months ago | |
Hi Maxine, There are pros and cons to switching regulators and linear regulators. Linear regulators "throw away" the excess voltage in order to maintain a... |
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Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 4 years 8 months ago | |
Hi. I've been following the opencollar initiative and was wondering what the current status is. The project looks amazing! |
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Sensors | 4 years 9 months ago |