With new technologies revolutionizing data collection, wildlife researchers are becoming increasingly able to collect data at much higher volumes than ever before. Now we are facing the challenges of putting this information to use, bringing the science of big data into the conservation arena. With the help of machine learning tools, this area holds immense potential for conservation practices. The applications range from online trafficking alerts to species-specific early warning systems to efficient movement and biodiversity monitoring and beyond.
However, the process of building effective machine learning tools depends upon large amounts of standardized training data, and conservationists currently lack an established system for standardization. How to best develop such a system and incentivize data sharing are questions at the forefront of this work. There are currently multiple AI-based conservation initiatives, including Wildlife Insights and WildBook, that are pioneering applications on this front.
This group is the perfect place to ask all your AI-related questions, no matter your skill level or previous familiarity! You'll find resources, meet other members with similar questions and experts who can answer them, and engage in exciting collaborative opportunities together.
Just getting started with AI in conservation? Check out our introduction tutorial, How Do I Train My First Machine Learning Model? with Daniel Situnayake, and our Virtual Meetup on Big Data. If you're coming from the more technical side of AI/ML, Sara Beery runs an AI for Conservation slack channel that might be of interest. Message her for an invite.
Header Image: Dr Claire Burke / @CBurkeSci
Explore the Basics: AI
Understanding the possibilities for incorporating new technology into your work can feel overwhelming. With so many tools available, so many resources to keep up with, and so many innovative projects happening around the world and in our community, it's easy to lose sight of how and why these new technologies matter, and how they can be practically applied to your projects.
Machine learning has huge potential in conservation tech, and its applications are growing every day! But the tradeoff of that potential is a big learning curve - or so it seems to those starting out with this powerful tool!
To help you explore the potential of AI (and prepare for some of our upcoming AI-themed events!), we've compiled simple, key resources, conversations, and videos to highlight the possibilities:
Three Resources for Beginners:
- Everything I know about Machine Learning and Camera Traps, Dan Morris | Resource library, camera traps, machine learning
- Using Computer Vision to Protect Endangered Species, Kasim Rafiq | Machine learning, data analysis, big cats
- Resource: WildID | WildID
Three Forum Threads for Beginners:
- I made an open-source tool to help you sort camera trap images | Petar Gyurov, Camera Traps
- Batch / Automated Cloud Processing | Chris Nicolas, Acoustic Monitoring
- Looking for help with camera trapping for Jaguars: Software for species ID and database building | Carmina Gutierrez, AI for Conservation
Three Tutorials for Beginners:
- How do I get started using machine learning for my camera traps? | Sara Beery, Tech Tutors
- How do I train my first machine learning model? | Daniel Situnayake, Tech Tutors
- Big Data in Conservation | Dave Thau, Dan Morris, Sarah Davidson, Virtual Meetups
Want to know more about AI, or have your specific machine learning questions answered by experts in the WILDLABS community? Make sure you join the conversation in our AI for Conservation group!
Cornell University
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- @volkankorkmaz
- | volkan
I have been working at the Underwater Association , to protect nature since 94 . Since 1992, I have been a PADI diving instructor
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Smart Parks
Founder of Smart Parks - www.smartparks.org / Founder of OpenCollar - https://opencollar.io
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- @tmcgrath
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Geographer, Program Manager, Engineering Manager
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Dzanga-Ndoki national park biodiversity monitoring
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- @derekrisch
- | He/Him
I'm a conservation ecologist working on invasive mammalian species. Use a variety of monitoring methods which provide an enormous amount of data (yay!) but require a lot of effort to process (nay!). Love keeping up to date on newest tech.
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World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
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- @cleo
- | She/Her
Southern African Wildlife College
I am ecologist working in African conservation areas who loves wildlife & wild landscapes. I increasingly recognize that conservation is about people, especially those living in & around protected areas. Finding ways to benefit marginalized people is my passion.
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Join us as we count down the WILDLABS community's honorees in the first-ever #Tech4Wildlife Community Choice Awards!
3 August 2023
In this interview with Edge Impulse’s Daniel Situnayake, we discuss how we can achieve that balance for machine learning tools, and how to maximize technology’s potential for good.
2 August 2023
Exciting opportunity for an experienced biodiversity monitoring expert in ZSL's conservation department
18 July 2023
Apply for funding (£500,000-£750,000) to develop software systems, which will help to improve biodiversity monitoring by automating the analysis of images and videos
12 July 2023
We are seeking applications from promising early-career scientists and data scientists with interesting, innovative, and viable research ideas for the Future Leader Fellowship
12 July 2023
Article
At Appsilon, we are always working to enable our users to get the most out of our solutions. With this in mind, we are happy to introduce two new add-ons to Mbaza AI.
4 July 2023
Apply to work with an absolutely all-star group developing AI/ML techniques and models for acoustic monitoring!
28 June 2023
The GSMA ClimateTech programme
21 June 2023
PhD opportunity aims at developing novel imaging methods and deep learning algorithms to describe and classify earthworms at Aarhus University.
21 June 2023
JICA, Japan’s International Cooperation Agency is seeking a digital partner with a proven track record in conservation technology as we launch a pilot project to test technologies to mitigate human-elephant conflict in...
19 June 2023
If you are passionate about making a difference in the world, enthusiastic about biodiversity, and excited about the potential of AI, check out this role!
15 June 2023
Job opportunity in Leiden, The Netherlands
9 June 2023
August 2024
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October 2024
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August 2023
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61 Products
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi everybody 👋🏽,I'm a UX designer, and I design interfaces and improve user experiences/flows. I would love to contribute to conservation... |
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AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 1 year 3 months ago | |
Thanks Bas! I'll look into SSD vs RCNNs, I'd never heard of an SSD. |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 1 year 3 months ago | |
greetings! i sent you a PM regarding this, feel free to contact me however is most convenient for you - regards,chris |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Climate Change, East Africa Community, Wildlife Crime | 1 year 3 months ago | |
I'm looking for any recommendations for any entry level/internship remote roles/companies in the United States that are focused in... |
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AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Early Career, Remote Sensing & GIS | 1 year 3 months ago | |
Hi everyone! and thanks @StephODonnell for the invite :)I’m a software engineer working on MLOps, and currently studying for a part-time... |
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AI for Conservation, Open Source Solutions | 1 year 3 months ago | |
Indeed, I'll be there too! I like to meet new conservation friends with morning runs, so I will likely organize a couple of runs, maybe one right near the conference, and... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps, Remote Sensing & GIS | 1 year 4 months ago | |
Hi everyone! The Fine Grained Visual Categorization Workshop (FGVC) is hosting its 10th rendition at CVPR this June in Vancouver. A huge... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Marine Conservation | 1 year 4 months ago | |
Hi everyone,I'm new here :)I'm doing my thesis of biology bachelor about Rhino poaching. I wanted to ask here if yu have some articles... |
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AI for Conservation, Ending Wildlife Trafficking Online, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Wildlife Crime | 1 year 4 months ago | |
Yes please reach out with any questions on acoustic monitoring, Arbimon, RFCx, etc.! |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Data management and processing tools | 1 year 4 months ago | |
I couldn't agree more with both of these comments tom! I'm reading hundreds (literally hundreds) of applications for open WILDLABS roles at the moment, and the ones that stand out... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones, Early Career, Sensors | 1 year 5 months ago | |
We have made available our underwater videos on YouTube as a playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnhVZKKy8WkZKriCIV6r7upWhHNVrU_7L It's about 1.113 short video... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Marine Conservation | 1 year 5 months ago | |
Hi Steph, This should be a simple project. Recently I came across a website with a sample video I am not sure whether it was from the wild Labs website. Where a camera is... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 1 year 5 months ago |
Webinar: Citizen Science Online
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26 March 2020 12:00am
WILDLABS Tech Hub: Poreprint
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26 March 2020 12:00am
Enter the Zooniverse: Try Citizen Science for Yourself!
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18 March 2020 12:00am
Tutorial: Train a TinyML Model That Can Recognize Sounds Using Only 23 kB of RAM
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16 March 2020 12:00am
Accepting Applications: ArcGIS Solutions for Protected Area Management
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4 March 2020 12:00am
Competition: Plastic Data Challenge
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3 March 2020 12:00am
Call for Nominations: Tusk Conservation Awards
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3 March 2020 12:00am
Hawai'i Conservation Conference
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28 February 2020 12:00am
Competition: The Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge
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26 February 2020 12:00am
Listening to Nature: The Emerging Field of Bioacoustics
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24 February 2020 12:00am
Team for Building of ML app for horse identification and conservation
20 February 2020 11:09pm
HWC Tech Challenge Update: Thermal Elephant Alert System
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17 February 2020 12:00am
ICEI2020: 11th International Conference on Ecological Informatics
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14 February 2020 12:00am
Seafood fund seeks ideas for innovation projects up to £250k
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11 February 2020 12:00am
WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Recording: Acoustic Monitoring
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5 February 2020 12:00am
AI for camera trap public data
17 December 2019 9:20pm
A New Cloud Platform Unveils the Most Diverse Camera Trap Database in the World
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17 December 2019 12:00am
[ARCHIVED] Workshop on Deep Learning Methods and Appliocations for Animal Re-Identification
25 November 2019 6:24pm
WACV2020 AI for Animal Re-ID: Deep Learning Methods and Applications for Animal Re-Identification
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25 November 2019 12:00am
WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Recording: Drones
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9 November 2019 12:00am
Camera Trapping: Incredibly Useful Resources List
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5 November 2019 12:00am
Who wants to learn Python? Courses to get you started coding
2 May 2016 3:13pm
1 March 2019 9:20am
Hello everyone what are you wating for..
All US, UK, India users can enroll courses from Intellipaat (the largest IT trainng company)
check some of thier superb training list:
29 October 2019 4:52pm
Chuck's Python for Everyone course is available these days at www.py4e.com, and he's also created a course called Web Apps for Everyone www.wa4e.com. Both excellent resources, and he's a strong proponent for (and creator of) open source educational tools in general.
Lucy
Plant-Powered Camera Trap Breakthrough
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15 October 2019 12:00am
Using Artificial Intelligence to Track Birds’ Dark-of-Night Migrations
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9 October 2019 12:00am
Camera Trap Technology Symposium (Recordings): Bringing Developers and Users Together
2 September 2019 12:00am
ICCB 2019: 5 Key Discussions about the Future of Conservation Tech
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21 August 2019 12:00am
Conservation biologists find new applications for AI tools
5 August 2019 2:57pm
Automated Identification of Indonesian Rhinos
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27 July 2019 12:00am
[ARCHIVED] Position: UI/UX Machine Learning Engineer
8 July 2019 11:27pm
[ARCHIVED] Position: Senior Computer Vision Research Engineer
8 July 2019 10:42pm
31 August 2017 9:06am
A couple of years ago I completed the Coursera course Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) with Charles Severance. I found it really well paced and well taught. He's a very personable tutor, and has also written a free book Python for Everybody, available as a PDF.
I found the Coursera course on R Programming with Roger Peng to be more difficult to follow, but I'm not sure whether that was down to the teaching style or the language itself. For R, I'd definitely recommend the best place to get started is swirl - Learn R, in R!
Happy coding