Wildlife Data ManagementWildlife data management
Wildlife data management is the structured way of gathering, storing, organising and analysing data about wild animals: how many there are, how they behave and the habitats they use. It is the digital backbone of modern conservation, and of every business that shares its land or water with wildlife. Its job is simple to state: turn raw field data into insight you can act on.
The term is mentioned more and more, but hardly anyone practises it yet. This page defines it.
What it means
From the field
Images and video from camera traps and sensors arrive in one place, instead of on SD cards and laptops.
Organised and reviewable
Recognised species, locations and time stamps make the data searchable, reviewable and exportable for ecologists and reports.
Know what moved through
Patterns over time and e-mail notifications after uploads are processed help people respond on the ground.
What counts as wildlife data
The category is broad. Across the field, wildlife data comes from many kinds of sources:
Tracking
GPS collars and radio tags that show where animals move and migrate.
Cameras & sound
Images and video from motion-triggered camera traps, and recordings from acoustic sensors.
Remote sensing
Satellite and drone imagery that shows how habitats and landscapes change.
Observations
Counts and notes from ecologists, rangers and citizen-science volunteers.
Where it is used
Solar-park biodiversity
Showing which species use the land around the panels, over seasons and years.
Predators at fish farms
Seeing when otters, herons or other predators visit ponds and basins.
Wild boar at vineyards
Understanding when and where boar enter the rows, so protection goes where it is needed.
Beaver activity at dikes
Documenting where a protected species is active near water defences, so managers can plan.
The workflow
Cameras and sensors record animals in the field.
Files reach one system automatically or by upload, not via SD cards in a drawer.
Each image is linked to a camera, location, time and species label.
People review labels and look at patterns over time and place.
Notifications and insights lead to action on the ground.
Results go to ecologists, permit holders and clients in standard formats.
The data life cycle behind it
Those six steps sit inside a data life cycle that keeps the information trustworthy over years, not just this season.
Decide what you need to know, design the survey, then capture and ingest the field data.
Store it safely and keep checking quality, so mistakes in handling or labelling are caught and corrected.
Make it findable for the people who analyse trends and judge whether measures on the ground are working.
Keep the history, so later surveys have a baseline and others can build on the work.
Who it is for
- Solar-park owners and ecologists who need to show biodiversity on their sites.
- Trout and fish farms that want to know when predators visit.
- Winemakers dealing with wild boar in the vineyard.
- Water boards and dike managers monitoring beaver activity.
- Nature parks and land managers, including across Europe.
Why it matters
Many organisations already gather wildlife data, but it often stays scattered across SD cards, folders and spreadsheets, and spreadsheets stop working once the volume grows. Treating it as managed data, with clear ownership, privacy and a workflow, is what turns observations into evidence.
Evidence for decisions
Reliable records give authorities and landowners a firm basis for policy, permits and protected areas.
Spotting change early
Data that is collected and reviewed consistently makes it easier to notice when something in an ecosystem shifts.
Less duplicated work
One organised source means fewer handling errors and less time and money spent doing the same work twice.
Sharing through standards
Common formats, such as Camtrap DP for camera-trap data, let teams and researchers exchange data.
Why not just an open-source tool or a camera-brand app?
Good options exist, and each solves part of the problem. The question is what managing the data day to day really asks of you.
The SD-card bottleneck
Fetching memory cards from the field, sorting the files and uploading them through each manufacturer's own app is slow work, and every manual step is a chance to lose or mix up data.
Open-source research tools
Academic and grant-funded tools, such as TRAPPER, are scientifically strong. They often mean hosting it yourself: servers, databases, maintenance and backups. And development can slow down when a funding cycle ends.
Camera-brand apps
A manufacturer's app ties you to that brand's app and subscription. A brand-independent platform accepts uploads from any camera that can send files over FTP or FTPS, so mixed camera fleets end up in one place.
A shared standard
Exporting to a common format, Camtrap DP 1.0, keeps the data reusable for ecologists, reviewers and authorities, whatever tool they work with.
Sensitive locations
Camera images and coordinates of vulnerable species can be misused, for example by poachers. How files are transferred and who can see them matters as much as how they are analysed. Untamed Data accepts both FTP and FTPS uploads and recommends FTPS wherever the camera supports it.
How Untamed Data does it
Untamed Data is software: it works with the cameras you already use and does not sell camera hardware.
- Upload images and video in the web app, or let cameras send them over FTP or FTPS where the camera supports it (FTPS is recommended).
- Works with JPEG, PNG, WebP, MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV and M4V files.
- Automatic species identification, which people can review and correct. The original model label and the reviewer are both kept.
- E-mail notifications about species detections once an upload has been processed.
- People and vehicles in images are blurred by default.
- Export per project as Camtrap DP 1.0, plus PDF reports.
- Your data is only used to improve models if you opt in; this is off by default.
- Self-service ZIP export of your data and account deletion.
Where the conversation happens
Wildlife data management is shaped in a few open communities and in research.
- WILDLABS: the conservation-technology community, with groups such as Camera Traps and Data Science.
- TDWG and GBIF: where biodiversity data standards, Camtrap DP among them, are developed and used.
- Academic journals such as the Journal of Applied Ecology and Nature Ecology & Evolution increasingly publish on how ecological data is collected, ingested and managed.
Further reading
Untamed Data is a wildlife data platform
Data management of the untamed. Untamed Data helps landowners, ecologists and operators get more out of their camera-trap images. People in photos are blurred by default.
Go to untameddata.com →