Condor Cam

The Condor Cam is a compact video camera that is mounted on the wing of the endangered California Condor. The camera captures footage from a condor’s-eye view over the period of several weeks, helping researchers understand more about condors’ behavior in the wild.

Several engineering challenges are presented in making a system to be mounted on an endangered species. The system can weigh no more than 50 grams, limiting the amount of battery power available for video recording. It must be able to record for a sufficient amount of time per deployment, and be weatherproofed and robust enough to withstand field conditions.

Condor Cam rendered in CAD

Our goal for the project is to create a low-power, high quality compact video system that can be deployed not only on condors but on other species to facilitate investigation into species behavior.

Please contact our staff engineer Nathan Hui (nthui@ucsd.edu) for more information.