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AI for Conservation / Feed

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used in the field to analyse information collected by wildlife conservationists, from camera trap and satellite images to audio recordings. AI can learn how to identify which photos out of thousands contain rare species; or pinpoint an animal call out of hours of field recordings - hugely reducing the manual labour required to collect vital conservation data.

discussion

Bird Acoustic Solution 

Hello Folks, I work with the Dept of Conservation, New Zealand (NZ) government. We are eagerly looking for a Machine learning or AI solution to identify the NZ birds (and other...

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There are a bunch of different options for detecting calls in audio data, from proper statistical platforms such as R/Python, to bespoke software such as Arbimon, Kaleidoscope & Raven. Edge Impulse also an online ML model-building interface, but this is more focused on then deploying the models onto devices for edge computing. Arbimon has template matching features that are a good way to start finding detections to build a training dataset, I have used it for this in the past. Arbimon is online & free. Kaleidoscope has a clustering function which is again a good first step to start picking out the low-hanging fruit of detections so to speak. It's a desktop app, but this is not free ($400/yr). Raven also has some automated features -  template & band-limited entropy detectors. It's also a desktop app and not free ($100-$800 depending on 1-year or permanent license and whether non-profit or not; not sure where a government agency would fit into that). 

There is always the ubiquitous split between biologists who traditionally are taught to use R and tech/computer folks who are taught to use Python, but for ML, Python's ecosystem is really well set up. Not sure what the level of programming you/your dept has, but there are a TON of free resources online for learning it if you were interested.  

Relevant Python bioacoustics packages potentially of use - Acoustic_Indices, scikit-maad, Ketos, OpenSoundscape (as well as the obvious ML ones such as TensorFlow)

Some R packages as well -  soundecology, bioacoustics, monitoR, warbleR, gibbonR

@tessa_rhinehart has created a fabulous list of bioacoustics software that you can find here: https://github.com/rhine3/bioacoustics-software

You can also turn to articles that have already done similar things and reach out to the authors to discuss their methods. I've got a (totally un-exhaustive) list of papers on passive acoustic monitoring, with a section on 'analyses' that you might find useful to start with; I can email it to you if you'd like. Working on a PAM training materials page on my website that it will be available at shortly as well (will post the link to Wildlabs when it's live!).

Hope this is helpful!  

Hi, 

Look at this publication (below) and download the BirdNet app. The computer code is provided to train ML algorithm that will allow  you to tailor the model with your own data. 

 

Thanks, Mrigesh 

 

Thank you @carlybatist , @Freaklabs and @MK . The inputs are very useful and I am progressing on my project based on that. Appreciate a lot. 

 

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discussion

Cofounder needed

Hey all ! if you have an idea that you want to turn into a company- I would love to help. I have enough hardware/software knowledge (was an engineer) to be the cofounder of a...

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What about developing a drone conservation training course for field conservation staff teaching specific skills for specific research needs. 

How exciting @Joyeeta ! I'd love to learn more about the companies and projects you worked on, can you share more info about them?

I once chatted to an entrepreneurial advisor with a couple of my conservation tech ideas, and he said my ideas are good/impactful but don't make for a product worth millions of $$$ of turnover per year that would interest investors. So I am very curious about how you got your conservation tech businesses off the ground!

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discussion

Switch to Conservation IT

Friends,Very excited to be a new member of the community!I have spent my 30 years career in mainstream traditional IT. But always loved and longed to do something meaningful in...

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Do you have any particular areas of interest within using AI for conservation tech? e.g., camera trapping, tracking/telemetry, passive acoustic monitoring, eDNA, etc. 

You might also check out the Conservation Tech Directory to see what other kinds of companies, organizations, etc. are involved in those different spaces and which are best aligned with what would want to do.  

Thanks Carly. No special areas of interest for now although that will happen over time. Thanks so much for your reply. I will check the Conservation Tech directory out. 

Soumya

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careers

Science Director, Vulcan

Vulcan
Are you passionate about making a meaningful impact on our community? Seattle-based Vulcan is looking to hire a science leader to support its work advising the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

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event

CV4Ecology Summer School

A three-week intensive summer school teaching Computer Vision Methods for Ecology, seeking to empower ecologists to accurately and efficiently analyze large image, audio, or video datasets using computer vision....

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article

WILDLABS Virtual Meetups Season Four: Tracking Progress

WILDLABS Team
This season, we’re bringing together leading engineers, conservationists, and academics to explore the future of technology in movement ecology and ask where exactly investment is needed to catapult this field forward....

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event

BirdCLEF 2022 Kaggle Challenge

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Join the BirdCLEF 2022 Kaggle challenge, where you’ll use your machine learning skills to identify bird species by sound. You'll develop a model that can process continuous audio data and then acoustically recognize the...

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article

Introducing the WILDLABS On the Edge Fellows

WILDLABS Team
We're proud to introduce the first WILDLABS On the Edge Fellows for 2022, Loretta Schindlerova and Meredith Palmer! Working alongside expert Edge Impulse mentors, these two fellows will use embedded machine learning to...

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article

Deep Learning for Marine Ecology and Conservation

arXiv (Journal)
This article provides a review of deep learning (predominantly ML) used in marine ecology and considerations for its future directions in conservation. In plain language, the authors provide a methodology for training...

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discussion

AI for Conservation Office Hours: are you interested?

Hi Wildlabbers! Let me introduce myself, I’m Lucas - I’ve just started interning at WILDLABS with a background in languages and Latin American Studies and I’m...

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Hi Wildlabbers! 

We're now going ahead with a small pilot of around ten 1:1 office hour sessions with Microsoft AI for Earth specialists. More details coming very soon.    

For the time being sign-ups are now closed, but thank you to everyone who has been interested. We will keep you updated on how the 1:1s go and whether there will be further sessions to sign up for later in the year. 

Cheers, 

Lucas

We've now wrapped our first run of AI for Conservation Office Hours and you can read my review of how it went and lessons learned here

Given the overall success of the programme, we're excited to announce that in early spring next year we will be coordinating a second round - so keep an eye out for further updates in the new year on the application and sign-up process. 

Also, we'd love to know whether you'd be interested in having a 1:1 so comment below and tell us what conservation tech challenge you would like to cover or how a session could help you in your conservation work. 

Many thanks, 

Lucas 

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