AudioMoth field deployment checklist
Use this checklist during Lesson 08 — AudioMoth deployment. Print one copy per deployment campaign. The hardware steps are easy; the protocol steps at the bottom are the actual work.
Site name ___________________________________________________
Campaign window ___________________________________________________
Lead deployer ___________________________________________________
Data council reviewer (signed) ___________________________________________________
Hardware preparation
- Batteries — fresh AA cells per unit. Lithium recommended for cold/long deployments.
- microSD cards — 32 GB or 64 GB, formatted FAT32. Label each card with site + unit ID.
- Firmware schedule loaded via AudioMoth Configuration App. Recommended starter schedule: 1 min recording every 5 min, dawn (sunrise ± 1 h) and dusk (sunset ± 1 h) windows.
- Sample rate set (typically 48 kHz for general bioacoustics).
- Internal clock synced.
- Weatherproof case (silicone Ziploc bag is the minimum; AudioMoth IPX7 case is better).
- Unit IDs marked on the case in waterproof ink — readable from the ground.
Field placement
- Locations decided in advance — sketch on a printed map, not just memory.
- Places we will NEVER deploy named and circled on the same map.
- Mounted 1.5–2 m above ground on a tree trunk, microphone unobstructed, away from running water if possible.
- GPS coordinate logged for each unit. Photo of the mount included in the log.
- First retrieval date scheduled before leaving the site.
| Unit | Latitude | Longitude | Mount tree | Schedule | Retrieval date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Retrieval
- Cards swapped on the scheduled date (overdue cards risk corruption + lost data).
- SD cards labelled with site + date + unit ID before leaving the tree.
- On return: backup to two physical locations within 48 hours.
- Optional: spectrograms reviewed for one random hour per unit as a sanity check.
The protocol layer (the actual sovereignty)
Skip this section and the deployment is data extraction with extra steps. Fill it in and it’s a piece of community-tended data infrastructure.
Boundary statement (see the Boundary worksheet — fill that out FIRST if you haven’t already)
Per-minute price for the recordings (set by the community data council, paid to the deployer via CDI)
$ ___________ per minute · paid in: ___________________________
Who can request access to these recordings? (named parties; everyone else is excluded)
Who reviews access requests? (named human + backup)
Primary: ___________________________________________________
Backup: ___________________________________________________
Withdrawal pathway (what an engineer would actually execute to pull a dataset back)
Places we will never deploy (sacred sites, private homes, ceremonial grounds — list them by name; the absence list IS the consent)
Closing checklist
- Every hardware row above is checked.
- Every protocol question is answered in writing.
- The data council has signed off before the first device leaves the office.
- A next-review date is set, no more than six months away.
The same AudioMoth, deployed without any of these protocols, is a piece of data-extraction infrastructure. With them, it’s a piece of soil-tending infrastructure.