Scientists and Land Managers

If you are a scientist or land manager interested in using camera traps to describe or monitor wildlife eMammal can help you manage your data and volunteers/field assistants.  We would create a new project in eMammal, which you would manage.  We will train you in how to use the website but you will be responsible for running the project, including managing volunteers and reviewing all images. 

What eMammal Offers

We have created easy to use software (Leopold) for a camera trapper to quickly review the pictures collected on a memory card, point and click the species in each sequence of photos, and upload them to the cloud. These data, with automated dates and times from the photos, are processed through our pipeline and come out as a csv file. Say goodbye to manually typing all that information! We have created an Expert Review Tool (ERT) for project managers to review all pictures and make changes to the species identifications.  Finally, all data and images are saved in the Smithsonian Digital Repository and accessed through the eMammal.org website, along with other data collected through eMammal projects to make comparisons between areas easy. 

From the website, data can be downloaded, explored, and analyzed. Pictures that have been favorited can be viewed on the website. All original pictures, except those containing people, will be available to public as long as you can access the sequence ID from Browse Data. See the Browse Data page for more info. All data contributed to eMammal are made available to the public eventually, but your data can be protected by an embargo to give your project priority in publishing the results first.

The eMammal website also has tools to manage your field staff/volunteers by assigning them locations to run camera traps.  We will create a project home page where you can also highlight your best pictures, manage maps of where your cameras are run, and write blog posts or discussion boards focused on your project.  

Read this PDF for a more detailed explanation of the tools eMammal offers.

Costs

There is a one-time setup cost for creating a project and a per-deployment upload cost.  There is no cost for long-term storage of data, costs are only incurred while uploading data to pay for cloud computing fees. Cloud computing makes it possible to upload and review data from any computer with an internet connection, which is a critical component of managing large scale projects.  Please find more information on costs here.

Your Responsibilities

Groups using eMammal to manage their camera trap data are responsible for executing their own project. This includes supplying their own equipment, recruiting and managing their volunteers, designing their study, reviewing the quality of data using the ERT, analyzing their data, and writing their reports. 

eMammal is creating tools to help with these aspects of the research.  We have some suggestions on camera trap equipment and study design, as well as online training materials. The eMammal Academy provides school curricula based around camera traps for outreach and education. eMammal also provides some online tools for basic data analysis, and we hope to expand this in the future.