Subjects and sources are essential components for tracking and monitoring wildlife, vehicles, and other entities. A Subject represents the animal, person, or object being tracked, while a Source refers to the device that provides data about the subject, such as a GPS collar or tracking unit.

Administrators manage the relationship between subjects and their sources to ensure accurate tracking and reporting within their EarthRanger system.

Let’s look at an example:

An elephant in a protected area wears a collar that periodically transmits its location to EarthRanger, where the animal's position is recorded and displayed on a map. 

For an EarthRanger administrator:

• The elephant is a Subject with a Subject Type of "Wildlife" and a Subject Subtype of "Elephant."
• The elephant has a Subject Status, which represents its location at a specific time, e.g., 34°N/-1°E, one hour ago.
• The elephant can belong to one or more Subject Groups, such as "Elephants," "Male Elephants," or “Elephants in Virunga.”

The elephant’s collar is a Source. This source has specific characteristics, including:

• Device Model Name (e.g., "AWT")
• Type of Data (e.g., "Tracking Device" or "GPS radio" data)

Finally, administrators can assign a Subject to a Source in the Subject-Source Assignment page, such as linking a specific elephant to a radio collar for a set period of time.

Managing Subject-Source Assignments 

About Subject-Source Assignments 

Associating a subject with a source (e.g., linking an elephant to its radio collar) allows EarthRanger to apply data from the source to the subject.

You assign a source to a subject for a specific period, called the Assigned Range. The Assigned Range is formatted as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS+HHMM, where HHMM is the time offset from the server's time zone. For example: 2019-08-31 06:21:00+0000.

To manage Subject-Source Assignments:

1. Go to the EarthRanger Administration home page.
2. Select Home > Observations > Subject Source Assignments.
3. This will open the Subject Source Assignments page where the subjects will be displayed as a sortable and filterable list. 

Viewing Subject-Source Assignments 

On the Home > Observations > Subject Source Assignments page, you can:

• Filter and view all subject-source assignments.
• Check if a subject-source assignment is current (i.e., if the current time falls within the Assigned Range).
• Add or delete subject-source assignments. 

Adding a Subject-Source Assignment 

Note: If you need to assign multiple sources to a subject, you can do so by selecting Add Another Source Assignment on the Home > Observations > Subjects > Add Subject page.

To add a subject-source assignment:

1. Go to Home > Observations > Subject-Source Assignment and select Add Subject-Source Assignment.
2. Select a Subject from the menu (Required).
3. Select a Source from the menu (Required).
4. In the Assigned Range section, enter the start and end times of the assignment in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS+HHMM (Required).
5. In the Attributes section, you can add specific information when needed such as:
   • Data Status
   • Data Starts Source
   • Data Stops Source
   • Data Stops Reason
6. In the Advanced section, you can enter additional special settings if needed.
7. Click Save.

List of All Subject Types and Subtypes