Wildlife Technology Online Conference
The Wildlife Technology Online Conference brought wildlife researchers, professionals, students & volunteers from around the world together to share their knowledge & experience of using technology for wildlife applications.
Our goal is to improve our collective understanding of how technology is used for global wildlife applications so that we can better understand and conserve our wildlife.
The Wildlife Technology Online Conference is Sponsored by Wildlife Acoustics
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FEATURED SPEAKERS
Dr Louisa Richmond-Coggan, LRC Wildlife Conservation
Louisa is an ecological consultant (LRC Wildlife Conservation) with nineteen years experience, a mixture of in situ field-based research programmes and ex situ positions as part of international NGOs. Louisa focuses on carnivore conservation, specifically human-wildlife conflict issues across East and Southern Africa. She aims to collaborate with multiple stakeholder groups as part of robust scientific research projects in order to create practical management strategies for the long-term conservation of species.
Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams, Wildlifetek
Kayleigh is a wildlife technology trainer and consultant with sixteen years experience of working with wildlife technology. Kayleigh helps ecologists, wildlife professionals & students to improve their wildlife work using technology. Kayleigh's mission is to help improve wildlife detection in order to better understand and conserve our wildlife.
Dr Debbie Saunders, Wildlife Drones
For over 20 years, Dr Debbie Saunders has worked as an ecologist, studying the movements of small migratory birds and cryptic animals. She has spent a large part of her research in the field, painstakingly radio-tracking the movements of tagged animals for hours on end. Her passion for using technology to improve conservation outcomes for threatened species led to the establishment of Wildlife Drones and development of the world’s most advanced drone radio-tracking system, the Kestrel 1000.
Ericka Buckreis
Ericka volunteers and works for organizations that give back to the community and environment. She is a hard-working, passionate, and enthusiastic individual with an interest in wildlife ecology and conservation. She promotes the advancement of environmentally sustainable policies, practices and technologies specifically though geographical information systems (GIS) to help meet society’s current and future natural resource needs.
Dr David Wallis
David has a BSc in physics, a PhD in planetary science, and a BSc in countryside and wildlife management. He worked for 7 years at UCL as a postdoc developing algorithms for processing satellite radar altimeter data; mostly for the interferometric radar altimeter onboard CryoSat. After a career break he returned to academia in the field of ecology, and now works at Aarhus University in Denmark with interests in computational landscape ecology and acoustic tracking.
Virginia Pelayo
Virginia is a passionate biologist and ethologist focused on wild cats. Since she was four she decided to work on wild cat rehabilitation and conservation. Originally from Spain, Virginia is currently working as an investigation assistant at Gente y Fauna and collaborating at Las Pumas Rescue Center and Sanctuary, in Costa Rica.
Olivia Pisano
Olivia Pisano is a Ph.D. candidate in Biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Olivia earned her B.Sc. (2014) and M.Sc. (2017) from Dalhousie University where she examined the effects of anthropogenic disturbances, such as climate change and eutrophication, on rock pool communities and brook trout. Her current project is focused on the development of an automated survey method that uses aerial and Very High Resolution satellite imagery in conjunction with machine learning to detect, identify, and count whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Priscillia Miard
Priscillia Miard is a postgraduate student (PhD) from Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang studying nocturnal mammal distribution, abundance and behaviour. Priscillia is also the founder and lead researcher of Night Spotting Project, an outreach platform from the Malaysian Primatological Society. Priscillia's background comprises an MSc in Primate Conservation and eight years of experience in the field of research and biodiversity conservation.
Rob Knott
Rob is a zoologist, conservationist and passionate naturalist who graduated with an MSci in Zoology from the University of Southampton (UK) in 2019. During his studies, he became interested in bioacoustics as a means of monitoring the impact of land use change on species with his research taking him from UK urban green spaces all the way to a remote Mennonite community in the neotropics. Since graduating, Rob has undertaken internships with the Wildlife Trust and RSPB whilst continuing his acoustic research.
Ben Seleb
Ben Seleb just graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He will be presenting on the development of a course at Georgia Tech - 'The Science and Engineering of Animal Conservation', where they teach undergraduate engineering students about conservation and allow them to apply their skills to develop technologies to benefit wildlife conservation. They've just completed their second semester and have already started projects related to improving reintroduction success, reducing human-wildlife conflict, and the control of invasive species!
Benjamin Barca
Benjamin Barca is a field conservationist and practitioner with experience spanning multiple organizations working in tropical habitats, from Central America to South-East Asia and more recently West Africa. After living and working for the past 4 years in Sierra Leone as an RSPB Technical Advisor for research in the Gola Rainforest Benjamin moved back to the UK and joined NatureMetrics as the regional coordinator for West Africa. Benjamin is interested in environmental DNA applications, community and citizen science, and capacity development in West Africa and beyond.
Dr Richard Alward
Dr. Richard Alward is an ESA Certified Senior Ecologist with Aridlands, LLC. For over sixteen years he has been
assessing wildlife habitat, evaluating the success of ecological restoration, and mapping rare plants as an
environmental consultant in semi-arid western Colorado and eastern Utah, USA (and, most recently, in northern
Tanzania). In 2016 he expanded his toolbox to include unmanned aerial systems (UASs, aka “drones”) and ultra-
high-resolution multispectral sensors, permitting him to use remote sensing to observe both the forest and the
individual trees.
Anthony Powell
Anthony Powell is an international award-winning photographer and film maker from New Zealand who specialises in all things Antarctica. Over the years he has had to design and build many of the camera systems himself to come up with equipment that can still function in the extreme cold of the Antarctic winter. His footage has appeared on Discovery, Nat Geo, BBC's Frozen Planet, and his feature film “Antarctica: A Year On Ice” won more than 20 international film awards.
Andrew Wright
Andrew Wright is a British marine biologist who has been working on the science-policy boundary around the world for over a decade. His research has included analyses of sperm whales and harbour porpoise bioacoustics, the impacts of noise on various marine mammals and an exploration of how stress responses are reflected in cetacean skin. Andrew is currently studying North Atlantic right whales with Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Nova Scotia using a novel combination of tagging and drone-based technologies. He is also spearheading efforts to bring more marketing techniques into conservation outreach, including introducing conservation to sci-fi fans through the Facebook page Vaquita Are Browncoats.
Dr J. Chris McKnight
Chris is an ecophysiologist from the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. He works on the diving physiology of air-breathing animals including humans. He is interested in investigating and comparing how different diving species protect their brain without access to ambient air.
Conference Schedule
SESSION 1: FRIDAY 8TH MAY 2020
19:00 - Kayleigh Fawcett Williams, Wildlifetek - Conference Welcome
19:15 - Richard Alward, Aridlands - Drones and multispectral cameras for assessing wildlife habitat
19:45 - Robert Knott, University of Southampton - Using acoustics to monitor the diversity and behaviour of birds and bats affected by land use change
20:00 - Priscilla Maird, Universiti Sains Malaysia - Thermal imaging and red light to enhance nocturnal mammal survey
20:15 - BREAK
20:30 - Beth Styler Barry, The Nature Conservancy New Jersey Chapter - Columbia Lake Dam Removal;
Using Drones for Quantitative Evaluation of River Restoration
20:45 - J. Chris Knight, Sea Mammal Research Unit University of St. Andrews - When the brain goes diving
21:00 - Ben King, Boxfish Research - Remote imaging for monitoring wildlife and habitat in Antarctica using the Boxfish ROV
19:15 - Richard Alward, Aridlands - Drones and multispectral cameras for assessing wildlife habitat
19:45 - Robert Knott, University of Southampton - Using acoustics to monitor the diversity and behaviour of birds and bats affected by land use change
20:00 - Priscilla Maird, Universiti Sains Malaysia - Thermal imaging and red light to enhance nocturnal mammal survey
20:15 - BREAK
20:30 - Beth Styler Barry, The Nature Conservancy New Jersey Chapter - Columbia Lake Dam Removal;
Using Drones for Quantitative Evaluation of River Restoration
20:45 - J. Chris Knight, Sea Mammal Research Unit University of St. Andrews - When the brain goes diving
21:00 - Ben King, Boxfish Research - Remote imaging for monitoring wildlife and habitat in Antarctica using the Boxfish ROV
SESSION 2: SATURDAY 9TH MAY 2020
12:00 - Debbie Saunders, Wildlife Drones - Wildlife Drones Workshop
13:00 - BREAK
13:15 - Anthony Powell, Antzworks - Filming in Antarctica
13:45 - Benjamin Barca, NatureMetrics - eDNA
14:00 - Anne Eichholtzer, Deakin University - TechnEcology : from Wildlife to Well-being
14:15 - Olivia Pisano, Dalhousie University - Automated detection of whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence
13:00 - BREAK
13:15 - Anthony Powell, Antzworks - Filming in Antarctica
13:45 - Benjamin Barca, NatureMetrics - eDNA
14:00 - Anne Eichholtzer, Deakin University - TechnEcology : from Wildlife to Well-being
14:15 - Olivia Pisano, Dalhousie University - Automated detection of whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence
SESSION 3: SATURDAY 9TH MAY 2020
19:00 - Virginia Pelayo, Gente y Fauna & Las Pumas Rescue Centre, Costa Rica - Wild cat conservation: monitoring and rehabilitation
19:30 - Ericka Buckreis, Eastern Kern County Resource Conservation District - GIS Workshop
20:30 - Shallu Prasher, Northern Illinois University - Evaluating spatial distributions of scent-marks in semi-free-ranging groups of lemur catta
20:45 - NETWORKING SESSION
19:30 - Ericka Buckreis, Eastern Kern County Resource Conservation District - GIS Workshop
20:30 - Shallu Prasher, Northern Illinois University - Evaluating spatial distributions of scent-marks in semi-free-ranging groups of lemur catta
20:45 - NETWORKING SESSION
SESSION 4: SUNDAY 10TH MAY 2020
12:00 - Louisa Richmond-Coggan, LRC Wildlife Conservation - Workshop: Using Technology To Monitor African Wildlife Remotely: Challenges & Solutions
13:00 - BREAK
13:15 - Benjamin Seleb, Georgia Institute of Technology - Introducing Engineering Students to Conservation Technology
13:30 - David Wallis, Aarhus University - How directional passive acoustic monitoring can be used to track bats and birds
13:45 - Andrew Wright, Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Better ecological understanding through combining technologies
14:15 - Kayleigh Fawcett Williams, Wildlifetek - Conference Close
13:00 - BREAK
13:15 - Benjamin Seleb, Georgia Institute of Technology - Introducing Engineering Students to Conservation Technology
13:30 - David Wallis, Aarhus University - How directional passive acoustic monitoring can be used to track bats and birds
13:45 - Andrew Wright, Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Better ecological understanding through combining technologies
14:15 - Kayleigh Fawcett Williams, Wildlifetek - Conference Close
Sessions Include:
- Presentations
- Workshops
- Networking Sessions
Supporting Wildlife Conservation...
25% of all our ticket sales go to Fundación Hagnauer to help Las Pumas Rescue Centre in Costa Rica
CONFERENCE TICKETS
Available for a limited time only.
Standard REPLAY Ticket
£30
Includes: