Camtrap DP

Data exchange format for camera trap data

Camtrap DP is under development and not yet recommended for production use.

Camera Trap Data Package (or Camtrap DP for short) is a community developed data exchange format for camera trap data. A Camtrap DP is a Frictionless Data Package that consists of:

File Description
datapackage.json Metadata about the data package and camera trap project.
deployments.csv Table with camera trap placements (deployments).
media.csv Table with media files recorded during deployments.
observations.csv Table with observations derived from the media files.

Want to learn more about Camtrap DP? Read our preprint or watch the November 2022 webinar.

Example

See the example dataset.

Validation

To allow validation, the datapackage.json of your dataset should reference the used version of Camtrap DP, both in profile and the resources’ schema:

{
   "name": "...",
   "profile": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tdwg/camtrap-dp/<version>/camtrap-dp-profile.json",
   "resources": [
      {
         "name": "deployments",
         "schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tdwg/camtrap-dp/<version>/deployments-table-schema.json"
      },
      {
         "name": "media",
         "schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tdwg/camtrap-dp/<version>/media-table-schema.json"
      },
      {
         "name": "observations",
         "schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tdwg/camtrap-dp/<version>/observations-table-schema.json"
      }
   ]
}

You can validate your dataset against the specifications of Camtrap DP (and Frictionless Data Package) with:

pip install frictionless
frictionless validate path/to/your/datapackage.json

Implementations

  • camtraptor: R package to read, explore and visualize Camtrap DP.
  • Agouti: Data management platform, uses Camtrap DP as export format.
  • TRAPPER: Data management platform, uses Camtrap DP as export format.
  • Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) (upcoming release): Online software tool to publish biodiversity datasets to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Contribute

Questions? Suggestions? Contribute to the development of Camtrap DP by watching the repository and participating in issue discussions.

To cite Camtrap DP in general, use the preprint (bibtex):

Bubnicki JW, Norton B, Baskauf SJ, Bruce T, Cagnacci F, Casaer J, Churski M, Cromsigt JPGM, Dal Farra S, Fiderer C, Forrester TD, Hendry H, Heurich M, Hofmeester TR, Jansen PA, Kays R, Kuijper DPJ, Liefting Y, Linnell JDC, Luskin MS, Mann C, Milotic T, Newman P, Niedballa J, Oldoni D, Ossi F, Robertson T, Rovero F, Rowcliffe M, Seidenari L, Stachowicz I, Stowell D, Tobler MW, Wieczorek J, Zimmermann F, Desmet P (2023) Camtrap DP: An open standard for the FAIR exchange and archiving of camera trap data. EcoEvoRxiv. preprint https://doi.org/10.32942/X2BC8J

To cite a specific version of Camtrap DP, use:

Camtrap DP Development Team (<year>) Camera Trap Data Package (Camtrap DP). Version <version>. https://camtrap-dp.tdwg.org accessed on <yyyy-mm-dd>.

Camtrap DP is managed by the Machine Observations Interest Group of Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG).