01
Who is visiting?
Recognize the species
Train and evaluate models that distinguish small-mammal species, including visually similar ground squirrels.
THE PROJECT / WHY IT MATTERS
More understanding. Less disturbance.
The next generation of wildlife science starts by rethinking how we meet the animals we study.
THE CHALLENGE
To understand a life,
we need more than a glimpse.
How many animals live here? Which individuals survive the winter? How does body condition change through a season? These are fundamental questions in ecology and conservation, but answering them often requires repeatedly capturing, marking, and handling wild animals.
That work demands time, specialist training, and substantial field effort. It can also stress animals and expose researchers to wildlife-borne pathogens. Camera traps offer a less intrusive view, but images alone do not reliably deliver the individual identities and measurements many studies need.
Wildmarker is developing a bridge between those approaches: an instrument animals can visit voluntarily, designed to identify, weigh, and measure them without holding them captive.
THREE QUESTIONS. ONE INSTRUMENT.
02
Have we met before?
Recognize the individual
Investigate whether natural visual differences can identify individuals across repeated visits.
03
How are they doing?
Weigh and measure
Combine a built-in scale with computer vision to estimate body dimensions and follow changes over time.
These are research objectives. Field validation will determine how accurately and reliably the instrument performs.
A WIDER IMPACT
Better tools.
More people doing science.
Wildmarker aims to make monitoring practical across more places and longer periods. Potential applications span threatened-species conservation, invasive-species research, ecosystem science, and studies of animal reservoirs of disease.
The education plan brings biology, artificial intelligence, and engineering together through partnerships with rural Idaho K–12 schools and University of Idaho senior design projects. Students help build the tools that will shape the next generation of field science.
Planned outreach includes partnerships with five rural schools and annual engineering senior design projects.
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
A three-year investment
in a new way to observe.
$1,040,107Total award
Sept. 2025–Aug. 2028Award period
DBIInnovation: Instrumentation
Official award title: “Monitoring and measuring wild animals without the need for capture.”
A SHARED CURIOSITY. A SHARED FUTURE.