Camtrap DP

Data exchange format for camera trap data

Camera Trap Data Package (or Camtrap DP for short) is a community developed data exchange format for camera trap data.

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

Usage

A Camtrap DP is a Frictionless Data Package that consists of:

File Description
datapackage.json Metadata regarding the data package and camera trap project.
deployments.csv Table with camera trap deployments.
media.csv Table with media files captured by the camera traps.
media-observations.csv and/or event-observations Table with observations that are classified at respectively media file or event level.

Example

Example dataset following Camtrap DP specifications.

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

See also the recorded November 2022 webinar for an introduction to Camtrap DP and its intended adoption as a publication format by 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.

Camtrap DP Development Team (2022) Camera Trap Data Package (Camtrap DP). https://tdwg.github.io/camtrap-dp

Camtrap DP is managed by the Machine Observations Interest Group of Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG). It was originally developed by the Open Science Conservation Fund, the Mammal Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences (MRI PAS) and the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO).

Camtrap DP is endorsed by the camera trap data management systems Agouti, eMammal, TRAPPER, Wildlife Insights and already available as an export format in some of these.