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!
World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @nora.gourmelon
- | She/her
PhD candidate in Computer Science working on Computer Vision for glacier front delineation in synthetic aperture radar satellite images
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 9 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @Diep
- | Ms
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
Zoological Society London (ZSL)
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 9 Groups
- @jsevans
- | He, Him
Senior biometrician, with the Nature Conservancy science team, attempting to bring vigor from diverse fields such as landscape ecology, spatial statistics, remote sensing and applied mathematics to answer practical conservation questions.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @StreamingScience
- | he/him/his
Georgia Institute of Technology
Andrew’s always looking to find new interdisciplinary teams in the conservation tech space. He is a postdoctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute, who completed his PhD at Georgia Tech in 2022. His interests including conservation tech education and engineering work.
- 0 Resources
- 14 Discussions
- 3 Groups
Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB), Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Behavioral Ecologist
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 14 Groups
Wildlife Logistics
Ecologist / Business Management
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 11 Groups
- @christine.mungai
- | she/her
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 2 Groups
Leveraging big data to solve hard, open ended and socially impactful problems| Ex - Palantir
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 14 Groups
Rutgers University, Microsoft AI for Earth, Google Earth Outreach and San Diego Zoo Global are proud to announce the world’s first camera trap technology symposium, to take place November 7th and 8th at Google...
2 September 2019
Sharing failure, tech support for conservation, roaming mentors, conservation tech hype cycles and developing new road maps - participants in our tech workshops at ICCB 2019 shared an abundance of ideas for how to shape...
21 August 2019
In this case study, Cooper Oelrichs of Save Indonesian Endangered Species Fund (SIES) breaks down his proposal for the development and training of an automated rhino identification system from limited camera trap data.
27 July 2019
The WILDLABS TECH HUB is supporting technology solutions tackling the illegal wildlife trade, in collaboration with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Digital Catapult, Satellite Applications Catapult, Amazon Web...
4 June 2019
To further their missions, LDF and Microsoft are collaborating on the AI for Earth innovation grant to support applicants in creating and deploying open source machine learning models, algorithms, and data sets that...
4 June 2019
Traditionally, illegal wildlife trade thrived in physical markets. But today it has also moved online. In China, more than half of the trade in elephant ivory items happens on e-commerce platforms. Enrico Di Minin and...
31 May 2019
This webinar recording will provide a brief overview of current SMART functionality, highlight case studies of large scale and innovative SMART deployments, and detail how SMART is embracing and leveraging new...
21 May 2019
In February, we released an open call for the WILDLABS TECH HUB, offering 3 months of support for solutions using technolgy to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. We were overwhelmed by an incredible 37 submissions,...
13 May 2019
To realise the potential benefits of data for our societies and economies we need trustworthy data stewardship. We need to establish different approaches to deciding who should have access to data, for what purposes and...
15 April 2019
Happy World Wildlife Day! To celebrate, this week we've asked our community to share photos showing how they are using tech in the field or the lab, using the #Tech4Wildlife hashtag.
3 March 2019
After a promising first run in Namibia, a Swiss project could aid savanna conservation using drones and automatic image analysis.
18 February 2019
Jacqueline Ramos explains how artificial intelligence can help to track and prevent chimpanzee trafficking across the globe.
6 February 2019
June 2024
July 2024
August 2024
event
event
September 2024
event
event
October 2024
December 2018
event
November 2018
event
54 Products
Recently updated products
14 Products
Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
---|---|---|---|---|
Thanks for sharing this @nkundiushuti ! I think this post would be better suited as an event, that way it will show up on the WILDLABS event calendar page. Let me know if you have... |
|
Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Biologging, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Community Base, Early Career, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions | 17 hours 35 minutes ago | |
Hi David - have you seen this opportunity? It may be a good one to apply to for support (the Darwin Initiative). |
+19
|
AI for Conservation, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Wildlife Crime | 1 day 14 hours ago | |
Hi everyone! I’m sending some information for a paid user study about Explainable AI and bird identification that may be of interest:Our... |
|
AI for Conservation, Citizen Science | 4 days 12 hours ago | |
Hi Johnathan, There is a Canadian company more or less doing that. They have their own endurance drone and optical/thermal cameras. Very much keyed into surveys and they may... |
+19
|
AI for Conservation | 5 days 16 hours ago | |
I am also commenting for future notifications - very interested to hear some responses.While not directly related to AI, here in Canada there's quite a conversation around data... |
|
AI for Conservation | 1 week 5 days ago | |
Yes, this system is designed to be installed near farms. We also have the repeller system with audio & light, that is battery & solar powered. This system is a "last line... |
|
AI for Conservation | 3 weeks 3 days ago | |
Undoubted things will quickly evolve from just "straight" ChatGPTn, BARD, ClaudeAI, etc "standard" models, to more specialized Retrieval Augmentation Generation (RAG) , where... |
+42
|
AI for Conservation, Emerging Tech | 1 month ago | |
This is so cool! I am 1000% going to see if they want to come talk about it at Variety Hou! |
|
AI for Conservation, Citizen Science | 1 month ago | |
Hi Sol,If the maximum depth is 30m, it would be worth experimenting with HydroMoth in this application especially if the deployment time is short. As Matt says, the air-filed case... |
|
Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Data management and processing tools, Emerging Tech, Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 1 month ago | |
Online citizen science platforms like iNaturalist and Macaulay Library contain a wealth of images but are hard to search using text. We are... |
|
AI for Conservation, Citizen Science | 1 month ago | |
We're seeking training data for AI for wolf ID - we at T4C manage 3 Wildbook platforms: Wild North, Whiskerbook and the... |
|
AI for Conservation | 1 month ago | |
Hi Phani,An entry point might be to participate in a challenge related to conservation on:KaggleDrivenDataFruitPunchMax Planck Institute of Animal BehaviorYou could also reach out... |
|
AI for Conservation | 1 month 1 week ago |