Detection and counting apparatus for ecological environments

A method of operating a data collection system for identifying organism characteristics, comprising:

• identifying, by a computing device, a triggering condition for the ecological environment;
• capture, using a camera in communication with the computing device, an image of the ecological environment based at least in part on the triggering condition;
• and
• determining, by the computing device, a characteristic of an organism in the ecological environment based at least part in a machine learning model, the machine learning model using an object detection technique and the machine learning model being trained with a dataset for identifying the characteristic of the organism.

A system, comprising:

• a camera for capturing an image of an ecological environment;
• a computing device that comprises a processor, and a memory, the computing device being in data communication with the camera;
• and
• machine-readable instructions stored in the memory that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to at least:
• identify a triggering condition for the ecological environment;
• position the camera in a media capture orientation based at least in part the triggering condition;
• capture, using the camera, an image of the ecological environment;
• and
• determine a characteristic of an organism in the ecological environment based at least part in a machine learning model using an object detection technique.