Extending the data standard Camtrap DP to bioacoustic data

Presentation at at UK Acoustic Working Group, 12 March 2026

Transcript

1. UK Acoustic Working Group 12 March 2026 Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Supporting policy through data Extending the data standard Camtrap DP to bioacoustic data Julia Wiel julia.wiel@nina.no 0009-0009-7224-3953 Sanne Govaert sanne.govaert@inbo.be 0000-0002-8939-1305
2. Who are we?
3. Sanne Govaert Research software engineer INBO o Transparency and open data o Machine observation of biologging data o Co-maintainer of Camtrap DP o B-Cubed, OneSTOP, InsectAI, IAS pilot, DTO-BioFlow Peter Desmet Open data coordinator INBO o Open data, standards and software o Co-developer of Camtrap DP o GBIF, DwC o BIG_PICTURE, B-Cubed Benjamin Cretois Researcher NINA o Open science and AI o Sound and image classification o TABMON, WWSS Julia Wiel PhD student NINA o Open science and standardisation o Bioacoustics and PAM o TABMON, WWSS, NRSN
4. Context Transnational Bioacoustic Monitoring Network
5. Safe and Sound ▪ Boring Fund 2024 with funding from WILDLABS and Arm Ltd ▪ January to June 2025 ▪ Can we adapt Camtrap DP to PAM? ▪ Collect use-cases and connect with the community ▪ Investigate existing standards and databases ▪ K. Lisa center for Conservation Bioacoustic - Cornell workshop ▪ WILABS webinar ▪ Living Data 2025, Bogóta - workshop
6. Organisations contacted • Aarhus University, Denmark • Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, Colombia • Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center Conservation Bioacoustics, USA • Deep Voice Foundation • Digital Animal Sound Archive (DASA) – Natural Sciences, Belgium • Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Belgium • Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Denmark • Natural History Museum of London, UK • Naturalis Biodiversity Center, The Netherlands • Natuurpunt, Belgium • Open Ecoacoustics, Australia • Open Science Conservation Fund, Poland • School of Science and Technology, UK • Tethys – San Diego State University, USA • Xeno-canto, The Netherlands
7. Conclusions • Need for a widely accepted bioacoustics data standard that is: ◦ widely accepted ◦ not too complex ◦ for both terrestrial and marine habitats • Camtrap DP fits and can be extended for acoustic data
8. Scope
9. Scope of the standard Exchange format Export Share Store Publish Machine and human readable Across realms Terrestrial Marine Freshwater Subterraneum Global Bioacoustic community Biodiversity observations Community Internationally developed Community based Accessible Cover most use cases Simple to use
10. Camera Trap Data Package
11. Remote Sens Ecol Conserv, Volume: 10, Issue: 3, Pages: 283-295, First published: 09 December 2023, DOI: (10.1002/rse2.374) • Bubnicki et al. 2023 10.1002/rse2.374 • https://camtrap-dp.tdwg.org/ • Community-developed • Maintained • Extensible FAIR • Findability • Accessibility • Interoperability • Reusability
12. Camtrap DP software • camtrapdp (R): read, edit and write • camtraptor (R): explore and visualize • camtrapDensity (R): REM and density calculation • Biowatch (desktop tool): explore and visualize • Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) (online): publish datasets to GBIF • Agouti (online): data management • TRAPPER (online): data management • EuroCaM (online, pending): data management • Wildlife Insights (online, pending): data management • WildObs (online, pending): data management
13. Camtrap DP is a GBIF publication format GBIF has adopted Camtrap DP • automatic data transformation to Darwin Core and EML • download dataset in original (richer) Camtrap DP https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/gallery?protocol=CAMTRAP_DP
14. https://album.wildlabs.net/ Discover Camtrap DP datasets on GBIF Data portal: Wild Album
15. Structure of Camtrap DP Frictionless Data Package • datapackage.json • deployments.csv • media.csv • observations.csv
16. Remote Sens Ecol Conserv, Volume: 10, Issue: 3, Pages: 283-295, First published: 09 December 2023, DOI: (10.1002/rse2.374) Project / Study datapackage.json Metadata describing dataset, project and files. deployments.csv Camera trap placements, including location, duration and camera setup. media.csv observations.csv Observations derived from media files (e.g. animal, vehicle, blank). At media- or event-level. Observations of animals can further specify scientific name, count, life stage, sex, etc. deploymentID A B obser vation ID obser vation Level media ID event Start event End scientificName count obs1 media 59b38bc6 T200 T200 Anas platyrhynchos 3 obs2 media cc50edaa T201 T201 Anas platyrhynchos 4 obs3 media 0966e552 T202 T202 Anas platyrhynchos 4 obs4 event T200 T202 Anas platyrhynchos 5 Recorded media files, including timestamp, capture method and file path. deploymentID mediaID Media file 59b38bc6 at T200 Media file cc50edaa at T201 Media file 0966e552 at T202 Deployment 29b7d356 from T1 to T1000
17. Project / Study datapackage.json Metadata describing dataset, project and files. A B
18. Remote Sens Ecol Conserv, Volume: 10, Issue: 3, Pages: 283-295, First published: 09 December 2023, DOI: (10.1002/rse2.374) Project / Study datapackage.json Metadata describing dataset, project and files. deployments.csv Camera trap placements, including location, duration and camera setup. A B Deployment 29b7d356 from T1 to T1000
19. Remote Sens Ecol Conserv, Volume: 10, Issue: 3, Pages: 283-295, First published: 09 December 2023, DOI: (10.1002/rse2.374) Project / Study datapackage.json Metadata describing dataset, project and files. deployments.csv Camera trap placements, including location, duration and camera setup. media.csv deploymentID A B Recorded media files, including timestamp, capture method and file path. Media file 59b38bc6 at T200 Media file cc50edaa at T201 Media file 0966e552 at T202 Deployment 29b7d356 from T1 to T1000
20. Remote Sens Ecol Conserv, Volume: 10, Issue: 3, Pages: 283-295, First published: 09 December 2023, DOI: (10.1002/rse2.374) Project / Study datapackage.json Metadata describing dataset, project and files. deployments.csv Camera trap placements, including location, duration and camera setup. media.csv observations.csv Observations derived from media files (e.g. animal, vehicle, blank). At media- or event-level. Observations of animals can further specify scientific name, count, life stage, sex, etc. deploymentID A B obser vation ID obser vation Level media ID event Start event End scientificName count obs1 media 59b38bc6 T200 T200 Anas platyrhynchos 3 obs2 media cc50edaa T201 T201 Anas platyrhynchos 4 obs3 media 0966e552 T202 T202 Anas platyrhynchos 4 obs4 event T200 T202 Anas platyrhynchos 5 Recorded media files, including timestamp, capture method and file path. deploymentID mediaID Media file 59b38bc6 at T200 Media file cc50edaa at T201 Media file 0966e552 at T202 Deployment 29b7d356 from T1 to T1000
21. Remote Sens Ecol Conserv, Volume: 10, Issue: 3, Pages: 283-295, First published: 09 December 2023, DOI: (10.1002/rse2.374) Project / Study datapackage.json Metadata describing dataset, project and files. deployments.csv Camera trap placements, including location, duration and camera setup. media.csv observations.csv Observations derived from media files (e.g. animal, vehicle, blank). At media- or event-level. Observations of animals can further specify scientific name, count, life stage, sex, etc. deploymentID A B obser vation ID obser vation Level media ID event Start event End scientificName count obs1 media 59b38bc6 T200 T200 Anas platyrhynchos 3 obs2 media cc50edaa T201 T201 Anas platyrhynchos 4 obs3 media 0966e552 T202 T202 Anas platyrhynchos 4 obs4 event T200 T202 Anas platyrhynchos 5 Recorded media files, including timestamp, capture method and file path. deploymentID mediaID Media file 59b38bc6 at T200 Media file cc50edaa at T201 Media file 0966e552 at T202 Deployment 29b7d356 from T1 to T1000
22. Remote Sens Ecol Conserv, Volume: 10, Issue: 3, Pages: 283-295, First published: 09 December 2023, DOI: (10.1002/rse2.374) Project / Study datapackage.json Metadata describing dataset, project and files. deployments.csv Camera trap placements, including location, duration and camera setup. media.csv observations.csv Observations derived from media files (e.g. animal, vehicle, blank). At media- or event-level. Observations of animals can further specify scientific name, count, life stage, sex, etc. deploymentID A B obser vation ID obser vation Level media ID event Start event End scientificName count obs1 media 59b38bc6 T200 T200 Anas platyrhynchos 3 obs2 media cc50edaa T201 T201 Anas platyrhynchos 4 obs3 media 0966e552 T202 T202 Anas platyrhynchos 4 obs4 event T200 T202 Anas platyrhynchos 5 Recorded media files, including timestamp, capture method and file path. deploymentID mediaID Media file 59b38bc6 at T200 Media file cc50edaa at T201 Media file 0966e552 at T202 Deployment 29b7d356 from T1 to T1000
23. Camtrap DP is extensible A Camera Trap Data Package "camtrap-dp-example-dataset" with 3 tables: • deployments: 4 rows • media: 423 rows • observations: 549 rows And 1 additional resource: • individuals standardized not standardized
24. Bioacoustic changes to Camtrap DP
25. 1) Change names • cameraModel → deviceModel 2) Extend descriptions • captureMethod ▪ activityDetection ▪ timeLapse ▪ continuous Suggested changes: examples
26. 3) Add new terms • samplingFrequency • gain • channels 4) Add table • assertions (measurements or facts) Suggested changes: examples
27. Other changes to Camtrap DP
28. InsectAI¹ COST action - update terms, e.g. baitUse > attractant - new table: detections - document model specifics Github branch with suggested changes: https://github.com/tdwg/camtrap-dp/tree/insectai Other changes to Camtrap DP ¹ https://insectai.eu/
29. Next steps
30. Next steps - Start TDWG (Biodiversity Information Standards) Task Group - Continue the discussion in Github issues¹ - Prepare the bioacoustic version of Camtrap DP Release of a new version of the standard is dependent on: - How fast we get to consensus - Funding ¹ https://github.com/tdwg/camtrap-dp/issues
31. How to be involved? 1) Keep updated: - watch the Camtrap DP GitHub repo¹ to get notifications - Read the report² - Check out regular posts on Wildlabs Discussions³ ¹ https://github.com/tdwg/camtrap-dp ² https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5343743 ³ https://wildlabs.net/discussion/safe-and-sound-standard-bioacoustic-data
32. How to be involved? 2) Contribute to the discussion in GitHub issues¹ If you have difficulty using the Github comment system, you can email comments to sanne.govaert@inbo.be or julia.wiel@nina.no and we will post them on your behalf. ¹ https://github.com/tdwg/camtrap-dp/issues
33. How to be involved? 3) Test your data¹ Photo by Julia Wiel ¹ https://github.com/camera-traps/bioacoustics
34. How to be involved? More specifically… ➔ Be an early adopter ➔ Share funding opportunity ➔ Help us to connect with ecoacousticians ➔ Become member of the Task Group (soon…) Questions or comments? Contact us by mail! - sanne.govaert@inbo.be - julia.wiel@nina.no
35. Take away Simple data exchange format Camtrap DP FAIR OPEN
36. Sanne Govaert sanne.govaert@inbo.be Julia Wiel julia.wiel@nina.no https://bit.ly/bioacoustic-data-standard Photo by Sanne Govaert Thank you!
37. References • Bubnicki, Jakub W., Ben Norton, Steven J. Baskauf, Tom Bruce, Francesca Cagnacci, Jim Casaer, Marcin Churski, et al. ‘Camtrap DP: An Open Standard for the FAIR Exchange and Archiving of Camera Trap Data’. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation 10, no. 3 (June 2024): 283–95. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.374. • Wiel, J., Govaert, S., Cretois, B. & Desmet P. 2026. Safe and Sound Project Report: Is Camtrap DP a suitable standard for (bio)acoustic data? NINA Report 2731. Norwegian Institute of Nature Research. https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5343743