Understanding Biodiversity with Natural Data Acquisition

Enhancing our understanding of biodiversity and ecosystems through natural and non-intrusive monitoring is a major challenge. It is essential for effective conservation efforts and tracking their impact. Traditional data collection methods like field surveys are often limited by the time, manpower, and potential biases they introduce (avoidance strategies of organisms). They are also tough to maintain over large areas and long periods, sometimes failing to represent real-world conditions accurately.

New technologies, like camera traps, are changing the game. Once deployed in the field, camera traps autonomously collect data, allowing continuous observation of wildlife and ecosystems without the disturbance caused by field operators, and they can track a wide variety of organisms. Data can be gathered in a multitude of habitats, including those that are hard to access by humans (e.g., mountainous areas), at any time and under any weather conditions.

Today, there's a wide range of camera trap models to suit different study needs. These cameras have specific features, like different trigger modes (automatic, motion detection) and photo quality (resolution). They can be used under various study conditions, such as different supports and heights or in combination with baits. These data collection parameters are defined based on study requirements. It’s crucial to characterize these parameters during data collection to ensure accurate data processing and extraction of representative information about the monitored populations and communities.

Because camera traps are so diverse, the data they collect is also varied, including photos, photo sequences, and short videos. This method generates a large and rapidly growing volume of data, making easy and quick data processing a significant challenge. Various types of information can be extracted from these data, such as taxonomic, behavioral, or functional details. Annotation is a major bottleneck here, with the quality varying depending on who does it—amateur naturalists, artificial intelligence, or expert ecologists. The different quality types are the result of a trade-off between the accuracy and reliability of the annotations (annotation confidence) and the speed at which they are completed.

EcoSecrets: A Collaborative Project by Natural Solutions

Camera trap software biodiversity monitoring

In 2022, Mathilde Leclerc completed her AgroTIC engineering internship at Natural Solutions. During her internship, she identified the community’s needs for camera trapping data management and processing. To meet these needs, the development of EcoSecrets, an open-source web application for biodiversity stakeholders, began.

EcoSecrets helps manage camera trap media efficiently and aims to standardize and homogenize annotations. It also assists in managing sites, deployments, devices, and their usage conditions, providing comprehensive characterization of camera trap-based studies.

A demo of EcoSecrets is freely available for testing. Since this application is accessible with a public authentication, avoid using confidential or sensitive data as all entered data will be visible to other testers. A user guide is available (in French for now) to help you get started with the tool: EcoSecrets user guide.

Whether you’re part of an association, a naturalist in a consultancy firm, or a public nature protection organization, EcoSecrets can evolve to meet your needs and requests. EcoSecrets is an open-source project. We invite the entire camera trap community to participate in its development to continue creating the ideal tool together, enabling you to fully leverage the potential of camera traps to better understand and protect biodiversity.

What Does Open-Source Mean?

EcoSecrets is open-source (GNU GPL version 3 license), meaning its code is freely accessible. You can find EcoSecrets’ code on GitHub. You can install, test, use, and contribute to its development.

Being open-source also means that all future code developments will be available in the application’s GitHub repository. This way, all EcoSecrets users will benefit from the improvements made by all contributors.

EcoSecrets is designed to evolve based on user needs and community contributions. Anyone interested in the project can collaborate, whether or not they have web development knowledge (by contributing code or creating issues). Here’s how you can get involved!

How to Participate in an Open-Source Solution?

Building EcoSecrets together makes it comprehensive and responsive to common issues. We invite you to participate by sharing the project, creating issues on GitHub, using it, or contributing to the code!

You can contribute to EcoSecrets on GitHub easily via issues! But what is an issue?

An issue lets you report bugs, inconsistencies, or propose improvements, new features, or optimizations after using the application or studying its code. Issues are accessible to the entire community on the GitHub repository, allowing for discussions to determine technical choices and developments.

Issues can also address application usage problems and provide help.

How to Create Issues on GitHub?

Key Steps:

Create a GitHub account if you don’t have one.
Create issues by clicking the “Issues” tab under the project name.
Click the “New Issue” button to enter your text on the topic you want to address.

Next Level Contributions

For those with web development, database, or design skills, you can propose developments via pull requests.

Identified Needs Requiring Funding

Several new features have been identified by many EcoSecrets beta testers that require funding. If you need these features too, contact us to arrange joint funding with all concerned parties. These features include:

EcoSecrets/GBIF integration: Include data in national and international biodiversity data flows by connecting EcoSecrets with GBIF.
Automated Annotation: Integrate the DeepFaune algorithm for pre-processing media.

If you have other needs, feel free to share them on GitHub or contact us to discuss or finance them. Natural Solutions offers services for installation, maintenance, and development of new features.