November 2025 Newsletter: councils saving $, improving monitoring + solar update
Kia ora koutou,
This month, two councils are getting impressive results with the DOC AI Cam, we’re close to releasing the sub-$400 solar battery pack, and feral cats are officially part of Predator Free 2050.
Here are the council case studies
- the cameras enabled the Northland Regional Council see the impact of a 1080 pulse. They could see clear evidence of possum and rat numbers dropping dramatically and reinvasion happening a few months later.
- Hamilton City Council shared how the cameras are helping them save money, while getting much better monitoring data. "The cameras mean that we can do much more of it with better granularity and at a lower cost per site"
As part of our effort to highlight other innovation in the industry, we'd like to bring your attention to the Bugg Audio monitor. The Bugg v4 is now available for pre-order through GroupGets. The expected delivery is the first half of 2026.
This month I attended hui run by Predator Free NZ Trust in Auckland and Wellington. I would like to congratulate Jessi and the team on the quality of the events and the speakers, and for their part in getting feral cats added to the Predator Free 2050 target species.
Kā mihi nui,
Shaun Ryan
2040 Limited, manufacturing partner for The Cacophony Project.
The DOC AI Cam makes it easy to monitor the impact of pest control such as 1080
DOC AI Cam
Our solar battery pack
The Cacophony team have made some good progress with the development of the solar battery pack. We have begun field testing and it is looking promising. It's too early yet to share results from the low light testing. We have started looking at the costs and are confident it will come in under our target of $400 (this is the price of 2 of the existing batteries).
We've published a product page with some more details about the solar battery pack. We currently expect this to be available early in the new year.
Examples of recordings
As we find them we are sharing examples of some of the birds and animals that have been captured on the camera. Here are some examples from this month.
- weka: audio call identified, thermal video identified as a bird
- foxes: detected but not recognised.
- goats: detected but not recognised yet.
- banded rails: detected on thermal camera
- chickens: detected on thermal camera
Manufacturing update
We almost have 10 cameras in stock. Due to an error on my behalf they're missing one part which should be ready in the next week or two. Please rely if you'd like one held for you.
Here's a possum licking a lure on the outside of a trap. These are great traps but sometimes the animals just don't do what they're supposed to.
This shows the battery pack voltage increasing over time from charging with an 8W solar panel in dappled sunlight
High Interaction Rate Trap
This month we have done some field testing of the high interaction rate trap. We continue to tweak it to improve the reliability and response times. We demonstrated the trap to some of DOC's island incursion team and received some encouraging feedback and suggestions on improvements they would like.
