Patrols have been updated. You can now record the whole team, their equipment and your organization’s own fields on every Patrol. See [What’s New in Patrols].

In EarthRanger, a Patrol groups everything your team does in the field over a period of time: where they went, who was there, the equipment they took, and what they found along the way.

A Patrol can include:

• Team members, including a team lead, and the tracks of anyone with tracking turned on
• Assets, such as vehicles, radios or drones that go out with the team
• Legs, which are the stages of the Patrol. A new leg starts when the team, the team lead or the Patrol Type changes.
• Events reported during the Patrol
• Notes, photos and other attachments

Patrols can be useful for documenting:

• Anti-poaching or ranger patrols
• Field investigations
• Wildlife behavior monitoring
• Game drives and ecotourism monitoring
• Operations and maintenance work
• Training activities (for example, canine unit exercises)

Patrols and Events

It’s important to understand how Patrols and Events relate:

• Events represent specific incidents or pieces of information. They’re logged as they happen and stand on their own.
• Patrols provide context by grouping together multiple Events, along with notes, media and location data, into a timeline of activity.

For example, a team lead starts a Patrol in EarthRanger Mobile and adds their team. During the day, team members report Events such as “Wildlife sighting,” “Snare removed” and “Vehicle breakdown.” All of these Events are linked to the same Patrol, whoever reported them, giving you a full picture of what happened.

Team members, assets and tracking

A Patrol records the movement of everyone and everything involved:

• Team members are tracked through EarthRanger Mobile or another tracking device, such as a GPS radio or handheld tracker. Only the team lead starts the Patrol. Team members just need tracking turned on.
• Assets are tracked equipment, such as a vehicle with a tracker.

Real-time updates are ideal but not required. EarthRanger Mobile stores tracks and events while offline and uploads them once it’s back online.

Viewing Patrols in EarthRanger Web

Open the Patrols feed from the sidebar in EarthRanger Web. The Patrols panel opens on the left, and the map stays visible so you can follow Patrol movements and locations.

Each Patrol in the list shows its Patrol Type icon, number and name, along with its status, such as Active or Overdue. Active Patrols also show the current leg, how long the Patrol has been running and the distance covered. Scheduled Patrols show their planned start time.

Use the search bar to find a Patrol, Filters to narrow the list by Patrol Type, status or the user who tracked it, and Dates to see Patrols from a specific period of time.

Patrol details

Select a Patrol to open its overview. At the top, you’ll see the Patrol’s number, name and status. Patrols started in EarthRanger Mobile also show a Mobile label. The overview includes:

• Legs: A table showing each stage of the Patrol, with its Patrol Type, start and end dates, and the team. Select the > arrow on a leg to see its full details.
• Summary cards: Duration, Paused Time, Active Time, Distance and Events give you a quick look at how the Patrol is going.
• Activity: A timeline of everything that happened on the Patrol (see below).
• History: A separate tab showing who created or edited the Patrol, and what changed.

You can also follow the Patrol’s tracks on the map, or jump to its last location.

To start, update or edit a Patrol, see [Create and Manage Patrols in EarthRanger Web].

Activity

The Activity section shows everything that happened during the Patrol, in order:

• Events reported by any team member. Expand an Event to see a summary without leaving the Patrol.
• Notes and attachments. Images can be previewed and expanded to full screen.
• When the Patrol and each leg started and ended, and when it was paused or resumed.

Use the Time arrow to change the sort order, or select Expand all to see every entry in detail.