Abstract
Camera traps that capture photos of animals are a valuable tool for monitoring biodiversity. The use of camera traps is rapidly increasing and there is an urgent need for standardization to facilitate data management, reporting and data sharing. Here we offer the Camera Trap Metadata Standard as an open data standard for storing and sharing camera trap data, developed by experts from a variety of organizations. The standard captures information necessary to share data between projects and offers a foundation for collecting the more detailed data needed for advanced analysis. The data standard captures information about study design, the type of camera used, and the location and species names for all detections in a standardized way. This information is critical for accurately assessing results from individual camera trapping projects and for combining data from multiple studies for meta-analysis. This data standard is an important step in aligning camera trapping surveys with best practices in data-intensive science. Ecology is moving rapidly into the realm of big data, and central data repositories are becoming a critical tool and are emerging for camera trap data. This data standard will help researchers standardize data terms, align past data to new repositories, and provide a framework for utilizing data across repositories and research projects to advance animal ecology and conservation.
Highlights
Surveying and monitoring animal communities is an essential part of wildlife management and conservation (Nichols and Williams 2006)
While camera traps have limits as a survey tool (Meek et al 2015, Burton et al 2015), the advantages as well as declining cost and increasing reliability have led to a rapid increase in the use of camera trapping as a survey method in the last decade (Rowcliffe and Carbone 2008, Burton et al 2015)
The standard has been the foundation of a successful effort to federate data from eMammal, the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring network (TEAM) Network, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Conservation International as part of the Wildlife Insights: Camera Trap Data Network
Summary
Surveying and monitoring animal communities is an essential part of wildlife management and conservation (Nichols and Williams 2006). The data standard describes data relating to camera trap projects with 35 different fields across the four levels As modern camera traps are increasingly able to capture bursts of photos every time they are triggered some projects are classifying the animals within an entire sequence, treating the burst of photos as a single event.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
