Raspberry Pi aids conservation work
Fox Hunt

© Lead Image © donatas1205, 123RF.com
As a countermeasure to predators of rare ground-breeding birds, live traps are monitored by a microcontroller and a Raspberry Pi.
In a nature reserve in northern Germany, foxes and martens threaten rare ground-breeding birds. Although the park supervisor catches the predators with live traps, checking the traps is time consuming and expensive in this virtually inaccessible area. Between 40 and 50 traps have to be monitored, which means long and mostly unnecessary inspections.
The use of modern technology would minimize the considerable effort involved in regularly checking the traps by having a microcontroller and Raspberry Pi team up to monitor the traps electronically and send an automatic alarm when one of the traps is triggered. However, the path from this idea to its implementation took longer than originally thought.
One of the challenges was the lack of mobile Internet in the sparsely populated area, although text message services are available. A previous article [1], in which one of us described how to set up a 3G hotspot with a Rasp Pi and a UMTS [2] stick, was the basis for the collaboration on this project.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
-
So Long, ArcoLinux
The ArcoLinux distribution is the latest Linux distribution to shut down.