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
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Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
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Wildlife Gadget Man
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World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
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World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
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Fauna & Flora
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Erebus
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Article
A comprehensive aerial survey of whales and dolphins off the coast of South Africa supported by a range of organisations including Fauna & Flora International (FFI) has recorded an astounding 1,106 southern right...
22 November 2018
Article
Camera traps designed for animals are now invading human privacy
Rogelio Luque-Lora
Although invaluable for conservation and ecological research, camera traps frequently take pictures of people as well as wildlife. This has important implications for privacy and human rights and may ultimately...
22 November 2018
Article
Ted Schmitt joined us for a lunchtime lecture in which he shared his experiences working across Africa the past five years with protected area managers, anti-trafficking organisations, and scientists to effectively...
22 November 2018
Article
Rangerbot, an underwater drone that can accurately identify and fire an injection into crown-of-thorns starfish, is ready to be put to the test on the Great Barrier Reef. The concept for RangerBot won the 2016 Google...
18 September 2018
Funding
NASA and The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have launched the Next Generation Animal Tracking Ideation Challenge, seeking your ideas for how to use emerging SmallSat/CubeSat technology along with other Space,...
14 September 2018
Article
Technology now frequently used in wildlife conservation is evolving at a rapid pace, with improvements promised to make research applications and integration with other technology easier, faster, and smarter. In this...
23 August 2018
Article
In this case study, conservation ecologist Ayesha Tulloch takes us behind the scenes of her recent paper, which came out in Nature Ecology & Evolution earlier this month. In this paper, Ayesha and her team present a...
20 August 2018
Article
Thermal Sensor Project Update: Testing with live animals at the San Diego Zoo
Arribada Initiative
The winners of our Human Wildlife Conflict Tech Challenge are offering regular updates throughout the year to chronicle their failures, successes and what they learn along the way as they develop their solutions. In...
27 July 2018
Article
HWC Tech Challenge: Smart Electric Fence Solution
WILDLABS Admin
As people continue to move into natural habitats, conflicts between human beings and wildlife continue to rise. Although there are a number of early-detection systems and tools in place to prevent human-wildlife...
5 June 2018
Article
From drone swarms to tree batteries, new tech is revolutionising ecology and conservation
Euan Ritchie and 1 more
Increasingly complex research questions and global challenges are driving rapid development, refinement, and uses of technology in ecology. This trend is spawning a distinct sub‐discipline, dubbed “technoecology” by...
9 May 2018
Article
Eddy Expedition Log: Characterizing Eddies
WILDLABS Admin
This month, we're following along with the scientists and engineers from the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) who working together to...
23 April 2018
Article
HWC Tech Challenge: Thermopile Sensor Project
Arribada Initiative
Conflict between humans and wildlife is increasing as human communities expand and wild habitats are destroyed, prompting need for new mitigation techniques. As a winner of the Human Wildlife Conflict Tech Challenge,...
19 April 2018
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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| Will your startup be involved in sensor networks for conservation? I'm very interested. Currently we create sensor networks for developmental infrastructure and agriculture... |
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Sensors | 6 years 5 months ago | |
| Hi everyone. I'm Akiba and I'm an engineer by trade specializing in wireless sensor networks and communications. I generally work with groups like World Bank on... |
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Sensors | 6 years 5 months ago | |
| Subcutaneous pittags that also read temperature (frustratingly) read only a limited range of temperatures - however, I hear that can be... |
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Sensors | 6 years 6 months ago | |
| Hi Ted, This is all very interesting. The solution you describe seems eminently doable and in fact quite cheap. So doable and cheap that it may behoove one to... |
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Sensors | 6 years 6 months ago | |
| Yes, I agree it's a tough problem - i'm certainly stumped ;) but thanks so much for your reply and counter question - the goal is to find these gillnets and... |
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Sensors | 6 years 8 months ago | |
| 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... |
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Sensors | 7 years 4 months ago | |
| The current project is in open plains. From a handler perspective the distance will be from 20m -100m. I will be working at night so it will be looking for me target, the Plains... |
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Sensors | 7 years 4 months ago | |
| @hikinghack used twitter to flag a thread on hackteria that members of this group might be interested in about DIY time-lapse soil... |
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Sensors | 7 years 4 months ago | |
| Also if you are still looking for a solution this was published earlier this year and gives recommendations for soundscape microphones : http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10... |
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Sensors | 7 years 9 months ago | |
| If anything belongs in the 'have you seen this' group, it's this project: Researchers at Binghamton University have created... |
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Sensors | 7 years 10 months ago | |
| The University of Washington is reporting that they've shattered the long-range communications barrier for devices that consume almost... |
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Sensors | 7 years 11 months ago | |
| My own experience is with the FLIR iphone attachment, just informal testing, but hasn't been that great at finding animals. I also think it would work better in the... |
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Sensors | 7 years 11 months ago |
