Camera Trap Data Management and Analysis Framework

Management and analysis of camera trap wildlife data through an integrated workflow. Provides functions for image/video organization and metadata extraction, species/individual identification. Creates detection histories for occupancy and spatial capture-recapture analyses, with support for multi-season studies. Includes tools for fitting community occupancy models in JAGS and NIMBLE, and an interactive dashboard for survey data visualization and analysis. Features visualization of species distributions and activity patterns, plus export capabilities for GIS and reports. Emphasizes automation and reproducibility while maintaining flexibility for different study designs.

camtrapR

camtrapR is a package for camera trap data management in R.

Features

• Data management — Build record tables from raw camera trap images/videos using EXIF metadata
• Data import — Import data from external platforms (Wildlife Insights, Camtrap DP, csv files)
• Survey dashboard — surveyDashboard() provides a code-free graphical user interface for data exploration and occupancy modelling
• Activity patterns — Kernel density estimation and comparison of temporal activity
• Occupancy models — Prepare and run single-species and Bayesian community occupancy models (via unmarked, ubms, JAGS or NIMBLE)
• Spatial capture-recapture — Generate input for SCR analyses (with the secr package)
• Spatial covariates — Extract environmental covariates and predict species occupancy across space
• Visualisation — Maps, activity plots, and survey summary figures

Installation

Install the release version from CRAN:

install.packages("camtrapR")

Install the GitHub master version:

# install.packages("remotes")
# install.packages("R.rsp")
remotes::install_github("jniedballa/camtrapR", build_vignettes = TRUE)

Install the GitHub development version (most recent changes and new features):

remotes::install_github("jniedballa/camtrapR", ref = "dev", build_vignettes = TRUE)

Note: For installation from GitHub, package R.rsp is required. build_vignettes = TRUE is necessary due to the use of static vignettes.

You can also install a specific previous version (e.g., if a recent update broke code you need):

remotes::install_version(package = "camtrapR", version = "3.0.1")

Exiftool

Many camtrapR functions read EXIF metadata from JPG images and videos via Exiftool, a free and open-source tool by Phil Harvey (available for Windows, macOS, and Linux).

To make full use of camtrapR, you will need Exiftool on your system. See the installation instructions in vignette 1 and the Exiftool website.

If you only use camtrapR to create model input from existing record tables (without working with raw image files), Exiftool is not required.

Vignettes

camtrapR includes six vignettes covering the entire workflow:

1. Camera trap data management
2. Species and individual identification
3. Record tables and model input
4. Maps, species activity and reports
5. Community Occupancy models
6. Sample data sets and the surveyDashboard()

Browse them online at https://cran.r-project.org/package=camtrapR or locally after installation with browseVignettes("camtrapR").

Help and Support

• Google Group: camtrapR — for all questions and problems around the use of camtrapR
• GitHub Issues: Report bugs or request features

Further reading

Niedballa, J., Sollmann, R., Courtiol, A., Wilting, A. (2016). camtrapR: an R package for efficient camera trap data management. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 7(12), 1457–1462. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12600

Niedballa, J., Sollmann, R., Wilting, A. (2025) The camtrapR R package: From data management to interactive ecological analysis of camera trap data. bioRxiv 2025.09.26.678697; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.26.678697

Citation

To cite camtrapR in publications, please use:

Niedballa, J., Sollmann, R., Courtiol, A., Wilting, A. (2016). camtrapR: an R package for efficient camera trap data management. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 7(12), 1457–1462. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12600

or run citation("camtrapR") in R.

License

camtrapR is released under the GPL-2 license.