National Geographic’s Remote Imaging Department would like to announce the publication of the Proceedings from the first Animal-Borne Imaging Symposium. Animal-borne imaging is a growing discipline that integrates video, audio, environmental, geospatial and physiological data collection in an animal-borne instrument. Recording from the animal's point of view, without human presence, it enables unobtrusive study of difficult-to-observe animal behavior. In recent years, ever-miniaturizing video and digital technologies have enabled smaller, more streamlined, and more robust data-rich systems to be developed.  This progression has led to more deployments on more species, which has resulted in an expanding body of statistically-supported assertions of novel behaviors and ecological relationships that have far-reaching conservation and management implications.

We wanted to provide a venue for researchers to share and celebrate their experiences using these imaging systems, so in October 2007, the National Geographic Society hosted the first-ever Animal-Borne Imaging Symposium at its headquarters in Washington DC.  More than fifty researchers from around the world participated in this inaugural conference, and over the three days, delegates gave some 50 presentations, and hosted two dozen additional panels, films, and student/teacher activities exploring this concept.  To encapsulate this knowledge, and make it available for reference, we've published our Animal-Borne Imaging Symposium Proceedings.  

Those interested in obtaining a free copy of the book can download the PDF (14MB) by clicking on the “Animal-Borne Imaging Symposium Proceedings” link from the following webpage: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/abis/.

Regards,

Danielle Rappaport
Program Coordinator
Remote Imaging Department
National Geographic Society