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!
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working on the digital transformation for environment, climate, and conservation
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Wild Me
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Working on Human wildlife Conflict and Wildlife invasive species management
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I am currently a Research Associate (Technology development) at Namibia University of Science and Technology-Biodiversity Research Centre working on machine learning models and technology tools such as camera traps, aerial and other EarthRanger to conserve and monitor wildlife.
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Iam very passionate in environment as well as wildlife conservation
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Murdoch university & BirdLife International
Research Scientist | Ph.D. | Conservation Science, GIS, Data management
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I am a conservation enthusiast who aims at learning more about conservation and its technology. My research interests lie in wildlife conservation in anthropogenic landscapes.
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Senthil kumaran Natgeo explorer and World press photo award winning documentary photographer from South India, he is working on Human and animal conflicts.
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Press Release for International Tiger Day – July 29th, 2022: For the first time ever, wild tigers and their prey have been detected by AI-powered, cryptic cameras that transmit the images to the cell phones and...
5 August 2022
Article
A gentle introduction to the exciting field of embedded machine learning.
5 August 2022
Careers
Wild Me is hiring
Jason Holmberg
We're looking to grow our engineering and ML teams.
3 August 2022
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Article
Ceres Tag sends just in time alerts and GPS location to have the power to track and trace.
22 July 2022
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The Earth Species Project (ESP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to decoding animal communication and translating non-human language.
15 July 2022
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This WhaleSeeker article discusses how reliable distribution data depends on accurate labelling from survey images, and how AI can improve this process.
13 July 2022
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The [email protected] team is looking for a data scientist with strong skills in python and pytorch development. [email protected] is a citizen observatory of plant biodiversity & research platform at the crossroads of data science,...
7 July 2022
7 July 2022
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Rainforest Connection has multiple engineering positions that will suppor their work developing acoustic monitoring devices.
16 June 2022
Evolutionary Ecology group at Naturalis Biodiversity Center (the Netherlands)
11 June 2022
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi Yvan,If you find something which reaches your expectation and especially the ability to identify individual with plumage patterns I will be intereted.In the same idea that... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 1 day ago | |
Have you considered creating a Kaggle competition? If you already have lots of images, and some that have been labelled, then this could be a good way to get people working on a... |
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AI for Conservation, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps | 1 week ago | |
Hi everyone, I'm new here! I'm a UX designer and researcher, and an animal lover. Excited to be part of Conservation Tech here at WildLabs... |
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AI for Conservation, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Software and Mobile Apps, Wildlife Crime | 1 month 1 week ago | |
Great news Dan! We will be giving the model a go on some of our new eradication projects soon |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 1 month 1 week ago | |
@gracieermi & I are happy to announce the latest update to the Conservation Tech Directory, bringing our total resources in the... |
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Acoustic Monitoring, AI for Conservation, Biologging, Camera Traps, Community Base, Data management and processing tools , Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Remote Sensing & GIS, Software and Mobile Apps | 1 month 1 week ago | |
Thank you so much Netty, I really enjoyed it.Good luck to you all with your work.Keep well! |
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AI for Conservation, East Africa Community | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
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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Acoustic Monitoring, AI for Conservation | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
Some folks doing work in this space - Wildlife Drones, Conservation Drones, UAV Wild, AfricanDrones, Oceans Unmanned, Geonadir. |
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Drones, AI for Conservation, Citizen Science, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech | 1 month 2 weeks ago | |
Dear Community,Together with Hackster.io, Seeed Studio is very happy to jointly organize “IoT Into the Wild Contest for Sustainable Plant... |
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AI for Conservation, Connectivity, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
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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AI for Conservation | 1 month 3 weeks ago | |
Fascinating article, combining machine learning and acoustical signals to correlate coral reef health.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... |
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Acoustic Monitoring, AI for Conservation, Marine Conservation | 2 months 1 week ago | |
Sounds good, Peter! I'll keep an eye out for your reply. Thanks a lot & kudos to your great effort! - Divya |
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AI for Conservation | 4 months 1 week ago |
Technology may solve climate change problems, but it’s also causing them | VentureBeat
8 August 2022 at 11:26am
Interesting thought piece from Mark Minevitch (AI for Good) et al. on the promise of AI and other ICT innovation to deliver on climate challenges, existing ICT sector emissions - and the three types of carbon lock-in which need to be actively managed (behavioural, digital, infrastructure).
'The danger is that the promises of digital technology can blind us to its less-recognized contributions to climate woes. Emissions from the ICT sector already rival those of the airline industry. Moreover, the few studies done so far (a,b,c) suggest the ICT sector’s emissions will at least double to 2-3 GTCO2e and if the rise in global GHG emissions is limited to 1.5˚C by 2030, contribute approximately 10% of the global GHG burden — nearly equal to that of the automotive industry. And these are cautious estimates.'
Tiger, Tiger, in the Night... Now Visible in Real Time
5 August 2022 at 04:07pm
What is embedded ML, anyway?

5 August 2022 at 03:48pm
Biological Data Science Summer Workshop
5 August 2022 at 03:03pm
Wild Me is hiring
Identify animal from Image
2 August 2022 at 01:37am
2 August 2022 at 10:24am
Have you considered creating a Kaggle competition? If you already have lots of images, and some that have been labelled, then this could be a good way to get people working on a solution
CERES TAG
22 July 2022 at 03:36am
Earth Species Project - Senior AI Research Scientist
15 July 2022 at 06:40pm
2 August 2022 at 02:54am
Hi Jitendra.
If they are still images, many people are using Megadetector to analyze their images. I'm not sure how it will do in species classification, but it can tell you if there are images of interest in the shots. Others here can probably give you more detailed instructions on how to use it to batch process camera trap images.