Consultants - Mapping EU’s Marine Protected Areas and analyzing their ecological coherence
19 March 2024 9:39am
Leveraging Actuarial Skills for Conservation Impact
15 March 2024 12:31pm
15 March 2024 5:04pm
Hello again,
I’ve been reflecting further on our discussions and wanted to share another perspective that bridges our worlds.
The insurance industry, particularly in property and casualty, which is a multi-trillion-dollar market globally, is facing unprecedented challenges due to environmental changes. Traditionally, insurers have relied on historical data to forecast future risks. However, the rapid pace of climate change is rendering centuries of data increasingly irrelevant, putting immense pressure on the industry to adapt quickly.
This situation presents an interesting parallel to conservation efforts. Just as insurers are now considering investments to mitigate environmental risks to protect their financial interests, there's a growing recognition that protecting natural habitats and biodiversity is not just an ethical imperative but also a financial necessity. The urgency that insurers feel to adapt and invest in mitigating climate risks mirrors the urgent need for action within conservation to prevent irreversible damage to ecosystems like coral reefs, forests, and more.
I wonder if there's an opportunity for a collaborative approach where conservation projects can align with the insurance industry's need to invest in environmental protection as a means of safeguarding their own future. Such projects could offer innovative, data-driven solutions to conservation challenges while also providing insurers with viable strategies to reduce their exposure to environmental risks.
I’m fascinated by the potential for our fields to collaborate, leveraging the financial muscle of the insurance industry to support conservation efforts on a scale that could make a significant difference. What are your thoughts on this? Could there be a space for actuaries in designing conservation strategies that also serve to mitigate future financial risks for insurers?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and exploring potential synergies.
Best, Ruhan
19 March 2024 3:44am
Hi Ruhan.
Sent you a DM. It sounds interesting and possibly can intersect with our work in environmental and ecosystem monitoring.
Thanks.
Akiba
Unveiling the Cicada Symphony: Seeking Support for Bioacoustics Research
18 March 2024 12:41am
18 March 2024 3:20pm
Great thanks! I'm quite literal at times as well :)
What brand and model is that ?
I've never seen one of those, looks interesting.
18 March 2024 3:25pm
Ah okay. I found it with google reverse image search:
I thought it would be huge, but it's little. Unbelievable what these tiny things can do for the price. Looks like the battery life will far exceed the capacity of the SD card in it (64GB).
Fundraising Workshop: Caribbean Region
18 March 2024 9:45am
SLN Webinar: Tech for wildlife: The role AI and technology can play in nature conservation
18 March 2024 9:17am
Useful Script to easily program the Pijuice and Schedule Raspberry Pi happenings
17 March 2024 3:10am
BirdWeather | PUC
27 October 2023 7:45pm
2 November 2023 9:20pm
I love the live-stream pin feature!
14 March 2024 10:29pm
Hi Tim, I just discovered your great little device and about to use it for the first time this weekend. Would love to be directly in touch since we are testing it out as an option to recommend to our clients :) Love that it includes Australian birds! Cheers Debbie
16 March 2024 10:47pm
Hi @timbirdweather I've now got them up and running and winding how I can provide feedback on species ID to improve the accuracy over time. It would be really powerful to have a confirmation capability when looking at the soundscape options to confirm which of the potential species it actually is or confirm it is neither to help develop the algorithms.
Also, is it possible to connect the PUC to a mobile hotspot to gather data for device that isn't close to wifi? And have it so that it can detect either wifi or hotspot when in range? Thanks!
Data Manager and Technology Coordinator, ABC Global Climate Center
15 March 2024 5:01pm
IgotU
29 February 2024 2:12pm
13 March 2024 6:12pm
I believe this is the bluetooth module:
It also looks like the same web shop sells the plain data logger (and even lists it as a 2022 version)!
And I believe @antoineede this is the solar version:
or this (no housing):
and here is the gateway:
although all of these are currently sold out on that site and I can't find them anywhere else...
14 March 2024 7:55pm
Hi Rob, Yes these are indeed the models. They are as reliable as the old originals. I have the GT120B's, G2S with/without solar and some GW's. Production has stopped and they won't be available in the future and I'm getting hold of their remaining boards. Have a big batch of GT120A's too which were only deployed once on a big seabird project which I will test at some stage and make available.
15 March 2024 1:01pm
Fantastic Nigel! Bummer to hear that production has stopped, but glad you are getting their remaining boards! I know where to come when I need some!
Cheers,
Rob
The Freshwater Sounds Archive
15 March 2024 10:32am
Introducing The Freshwater Sounds Archive, a global database of sounds produced by freshwater species.
Submit your species-specific or unidentified sounds to the archive now and receive recognition for your contribution in a forthcoming data paper as a co-author!
Ethics in conservation
15 March 2024 8:53am
2 Postdoctoral Conservation Ecologist Positions at Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (SNZCBI)
14 March 2024 7:18pm
Bioacoustic device security in urban parks
8 March 2024 2:49pm
13 March 2024 7:10am
Have you tried my Raspberry Pi ARU yet? You can build one with a high end microphone (The bulk of the price) for less than 100 euros. With a low end microphone I expect around 50 euros.
And that price is including a GPS for time synchronization. If you had the pipeline you could in principle do real time TDOA sound localization. The cheap price comes at a cost though, you would have to replace the batteries a bunch more.
13 March 2024 11:01am
If you have a system with a GPS, on the Pi based system this would work in any case, then you could effectively geo-fence the unit and send out a lorawan alert if the device moved (And they didn't immediately disconnect the battery). You would of course then have to "Add" a lorawan microcontroller to the system. it would still be a cheap system and it would actually work.
If course, there's the classic question, what do you do then? Are you living close enough to be able to respond ?
If the city had cameras and where very enterprising (Which I seriously doubt). Then you could couple up my security system and send real time video alerts if intruders entered the area where the device was hidden.
14 March 2024 5:53pm
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences! It is reassuring to know the sound quality might not be too compromised if we need to choose a less visible placement.
AI for Conservation!
4 March 2024 8:51pm
12 March 2024 7:43pm
Welcome, Alessandro! Definitely join some of the groups we have on WILDLABS that are in your areas of interest, like AI for Conservation and Marine Conservation.
14 March 2024 5:03pm
Thank you very much for the help!
14 March 2024 5:04pm
Thank you! I will check these groups out :)
Ai monitoring of wolves in the Netherlands
7 September 2023 9:45am
7 March 2024 11:11am
My feeling is that for the Netherlands it's too late. They should have been helping the people a long time ago. Now it's too polarized, the people only want one thing, to kill the wolves.
It's not even possible to help the people because anyone that works with a detection system with intent to repell the wolf is likely seen as the enemy to the goal of killing the wolf out. And anyone that works with someone on such a system is quite likely to be viewed as a "collaborator".
I joined a join called No Wolf (Geen wolf) on facebook, but I'm not allowed to even saying anything on that group. It's fully moderated. If you want to help the moderators get to know you you are asked a question "What do you think of rewilding".
If you get passed that you are asked to click to sign that you comply with the rules. Rule #1 is "I'm completely sick of this whole rewilding bullshit".
I wanted to attend a local information meeting, but you have to sign up to attend and you have to click on which one of the local regions you belong to. So, no outsiders.
So just helping people protecting their animals you would somehow need to be able to get past them hating you, that you want to help them doesn't really factor in anymore. No one wants to be a identified as a collaborator. One has to realise that the Netherlands is a very extreme case. If you subscribe to the facebook group "Geen wolf" you will see that they are report sightings of wolves in the daylight in the fields on pretty much a daily basis. It's a situation that is completely out of control.
A lession in all of this is if you really want to facilitate rewilding or human/wildlife co-existence you have to get in really early with tools to help people protect their animals. If you don't and you just ignore this and simply offer compensation, you run a very high risk that you will not be given a chance later on to do anything at all beyond killing them all.
It's not entirely over. However, the move has to come from the government themselves I think, no one else has access to the problem areas and people and they should be providing funding to help with this. Currently there's no single AI detection POC deployed in the Netherlands that I know about in any case. It's hard to find out, they don't answer their E-mails or answer the phone.
13 March 2024 3:26pm
I may have spoken too soon about this. I heard today that there is interest from the Province. There might just be a pilot after all. I like being pleasantly surprised.
14 March 2024 4:21pm
Testing my post capture automatic annotation on the video alerts of StalkedByTheState
The yellow lines are the region of interest. The blue cross indicates that the target category is within the region of interest and meets the required min/max height, width and confidence level. For this notification. Notifications can be dynamically activated/de-activated by a rest interface.
Unlock New Features by Earning Your Community Involvement Badge!
14 March 2024 11:54am
14 March 2024 2:41pm
The journey to Ent begins
14 March 2024 2:56pm
@Rob_Appleby follow these instructions to get your Sprout badge!
Welcome to WILDLABS!
29 October 2015 5:16pm
2 March 2024 10:27pm
Hey everyone! I'm an informatic engineering student who recently has been thinking on what i want to apply my studies to. The idea of trying to use my knowledge on preserving wildlife is something that I liked a lot so I'm really interested on getting feedback from people who have experience on working close to this field. Have been researching a lot and i would like to get some first hand advice :D
Looking forward to get to know a lot more about this subject I'm getting so passionate about!
12 March 2024 3:50pm
Hello everyone!
I'm the Platform and Community Support Project Officer at WILDLABS. I've been working here for a while now but only just introducing myself in this thread. I have a background in Evolutionary & Behavioural Ecology, with a specific interest in Sensory Ecology and how animal perceive the world. I love reading all about the brilliant work going on in this community every day. Come speak to me if you have any inquiries about using the WILDLABS website!
I'm also secretly introducing myself here so I can earn my Community Involvement 'Sprout Badge', part of a new WILDLABS Badges feature we have rolled out across the website today. Check out my post to learn more about how to earn badges!
14 March 2024 1:23pm
Hi everyone. I see I haven't introduced myself here on this thread yet and to get another badge I need to.
I'm an expat New Zealander living in the Netherlands. I discovered this community last year when I was developing a Raspberry Pi based sound localizing ARU called sbts-aru. This was originally intended to be an addition to another project of mine, which is an AI on the edge security system called StalkedByTheState, which I'm now pivotting now towards Wildlife Preservation efforts. I don't actually work in the Wildlife area (yet), I work in IT.
I recently integrated the deepfaune model into StalkedByTheState and heard yesterday that there is potential interest in a province in the Netherlands in this system for it's ability to detect wolves.
Two other StalkedByTheState systems are about to be tested. One is about to land in a secret location in Denmark and another to a secret location in South Africa. All exciting stuff!
International Day of Forests: "New Technological Innovations are Needed to Halt Deforestation and Forest Degradation" Panel
14 March 2024 12:16pm
Using citizen science image analysis to measure seabird phenology
13 March 2024 9:32pm
Our new paper uses data from the citizen science project, Seabird Watch (hosted on the Zooniverse platform; seabirdwatch.org), to measure seabird phenology. Volunteers marked birds in time-lapse images to investigate arrival and departure to/from the breeding grounds.
movedesign: Shiny R app to evaluate sampling design for animal movement studies
13 March 2024 3:10pm
This "workflow allows users to evaluate a wide range of potential sampling designs, which can then serve as a solid foundation for future tracking projects, or even the evaluation of on-going and published studies."
PhD Opening: Revealing the Dynamics of Soaring Environments Through GPS and Drones
13 March 2024 2:11pm
Senior Post-doctoral Researcher/Senior Research Associate Opportunity: Movement ecology of Greenland halibut
13 March 2024 2:00pm
Ph.D. Assistantship: Collared Peccary Population and Spatial Ecology in Southern Texas
13 March 2024 1:51pm
Young Futures - The Lonely Hearts Club Funding Challenge
13 March 2024 10:14am
IMU and orientation data for marine species
13 March 2024 9:12am
Biodiversity Informatics Innovations using MindMaps
13 March 2024 6:32am
DIY VHF receivers?
12 March 2024 2:51pm
Now for Wildlife
12 March 2024 2:36pm
Free AI Camera Trap Model for European Fauna!
12 March 2024 12:33pm
EcoAssist has now incorporated the Deepfaune v1.1 species identification model for camera trap images, capable of recognizing 26 European species. The model is developed by Deepfaune initiative. More information is available at: https://www.deepfaune.cnrs.fr/.
WILDLABS Badges User Guide
12 March 2024 12:00pm
12 March 2024 3:20pm
15 March 2024 4:34pm
Hi Steph,
Thanks so much for welcoming me to WildLabs and for posing a question that really gets to the heart of what I believe I can offer to the community.
Actuaries, by trade, are experts in risk management and financial forecasting, using data from the past to predict future trends and outcomes. But it's how this expertise can apply to conservation that's truly exciting to me.
For instance, consider coral reefs, vital ecosystems facing existential threats from climate change and human activities. An actuary could help by modelling the intricate dynamics between environmental factors and reef health, assessing the financial implications of their decline not just on local communities, but globally. This is similar to how we model financial risks and potential losses due to environmental changes in the insurance industry. It’s about understanding the value of conservation, not just in ecological terms, but also in clear financial language that can speak to both the public sector and private enterprises.
The innovative work within this community, from Sara Beery's advancements in computer vision to Ben Mirin's creative engagement with wildlife sounds, showcases the power of interdisciplinary approaches. I am in awe of these efforts and am keen to see where someone with my background in predictive analytics and financial impact assessment can fit in.
As a newcomer eager to contribute, I'm particularly interested in exploring projects where we can apply actuarial science to optimize conservation funding or model the economic benefits of preserving ecosystems like coral reefs. These models can help make a compelling case to stakeholders about the urgency of conservation efforts, bridging the gap between ecological necessity and financial strategy.
I’m here not just to bring my skills to the table, but to learn from all of you and find where I can best contribute to the incredible work being done here.
Looking forward to finding my place in this inspiring community.
Best regards,
Ruhan