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!
- @eliminatha
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Passionate wildlife researcher dedicated to uncovering the secrets of the natural world via the lens of camera traps. With a sharp eye for detail and a strong commitment to wildlife conservation.
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- 4 Groups
- @Amitkaushik
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University of Georgia (UGA)
Environmental anthropologist; An interdisciplinary Ph.D. student, bridging conservation science, policies, and social justice
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- 1 Discussions
- 2 Groups
Data has been my passion and i enjoy working with data while bringing value to the business. Data engineer with 7+ years of experience Eager to support with expert analytical skills to advance the companys business operations and strategic initiative.
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- 9 Groups
- @kbubnicki
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Ecologist, data scientist, and programmer with over 13 years of professional experience. Open source and Linux enthusiast. Researcher at the Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, and CEO of the Open Science Conservation Fund.
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- 5 Groups
- @JoãoVieira
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Conservation biologist. Iberian wolf monitoring field technician. Master`s on bear`s movement ecology.
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- @shannondubay
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Panthera
Director of Conservation Technology at Panthera
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- 5 Groups
- @waltertortuga
- | She/Her/Hers
Universidad San Francisco de Quito
I'm a professor and researcher focusing on carnivore conservation in tropical landscapes.
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- 5 Groups
- @silvanasitayiari
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- 0 Resources
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- @alekseisaunders
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Wildlife conservationist, ichthyologist, now pursuing a career in Software Engineering and Web Development
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- 2 Groups
Adventure Scientists is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Bozeman, MT that equips scientists and researchers with high-quality data collected from the outdoors that are crucial to addressing environmental challenges around the world.
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- 16 Groups
- @DanielHugelmann
- | He / Him
Hi, I'm the co-founder of OceanLabs Seychelles. We design and build environmental and marine remote sensing devices for conservation NGOs. As an engineer and avid diver, with a love for the environment, connecting conservation and technology was the natural thing to do!
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Background in Computer Science, Developing Acoustic AI Tech at Synature
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- 4 Groups
We're delighted to announce that Connected Conservation Foundation and Airbus Foundation have today launched round 2 of the ‘Satellites for Biodiversity Award’.
2 October 2023
Careers
Could you be our next team member to help empower conservation through data and technology?
28 September 2023
Careers
Island Conservation's Innovation Team is dedicated to developing innovative, data-driven tools to increase the scale, scope, and pace of island restorations around the world. As the Conservation Innovation Manager, you...
27 September 2023
Varaha is seeking a Geospatial Data Scientist to help design, build, and deliver a compelling spatial data science platform and develop industry leading AI models for satellite imagery.
25 September 2023
The partnership will support the Global South with the development, planning and management of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the high seas.
22 September 2023
The new white paper from Rainforest Connection (RFCx) explores the power of ecoacoustics and AI to monitor biodiversity and track progress towards GBF targets using case studies from around the world.
20 September 2023
The program’s third cohort will provide $300,000 to artificial intelligence projects making a positive impact in ecosystems and human communities.
15 September 2023
Article
Five #tech4wildlife people, projects and updates that caught our attention this month. An AI supported bear early warning system, a project that's connecting indigenous communities with high speed internet, exploring...
12 September 2023
Can you create an ecological data collection application on Android for Gibbon and Biodiversity Research. Check out this opportunity with us!
24 August 2023
Please join us in celebrating this year’s top #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge Honorees as chosen by our panel of leading conservation organization judges, and enjoy the story contained within these entries about how our...
4 August 2023
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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
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi @DaveGaynor regarding funding, have you reached out to any lodges? I know that snaring is rife in the Manyaleti ... maybe some of the lodges in the Sabi Sands would be... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Wildlife Crime | 7 hours 29 minutes ago | |
Actually my Raspberry Pi application is a sound localizer not related to image recognition. My image recognition related project runs on Jetsons and higher.But I think recognizing... |
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AI for Conservation | 1 day 1 hour ago | |
Hi @emmahiggins , sounds like a great plan. Could you tell more about the content of the program, and perhaps the institutional context (which department(s) is(are)... |
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Build Your Own Data Logger Community, AI for Conservation, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Biologging, Camera Traps, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Acoustics, Community Base, Connectivity, Conservation Dogs, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Early Career, Earth Observation 101 Community, East Africa Community, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Ending Wildlife Trafficking Online, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Footprint Identification Technique (FIT), Human-Wildlife Conflict, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions, Protected Area Management Tools, Remote Sensing & GIS, Sensors, Software and Mobile Apps, Sustainable Fishing Challenges, Wildlife Crime, Women in Conservation Tech Programme (WiCT) | 2 days 8 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... |
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AI for Conservation | 3 days 20 hours 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... |
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AI for Conservation | 2 weeks 1 day ago | |
Undoubted things will quickly evolve from just "straight" ChatGPTn, BARD, ClaudeAI, etc "standard" models, to more specialized Retrieval Augmentation Generation (RAG) , where... |
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AI for Conservation, Emerging Tech | 3 weeks 2 days ago | |
This is so cool! I am 1000% going to see if they want to come talk about it at Variety Hou! |
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AI for Conservation, Citizen Science | 3 weeks 3 days 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... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Data management and processing tools, Emerging Tech, Sustainable Fishing Challenges | 3 weeks 3 days ago | |
Online citizen science platforms like iNaturalist and Macaulay Library contain a wealth of images but are hard to search using text. We are... |
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AI for Conservation, Citizen Science | 3 weeks 5 days ago | |
We're seeking training data for AI for wolf ID - we at T4C manage 3 Wildbook platforms: Wild North, Whiskerbook and the... |
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AI for Conservation | 4 weeks 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... |
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AI for Conservation | 1 month ago | |
[oops, the same reply got submitted twice and there doesn't seem to be a "delete" button] |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 1 month ago |
From the Field: Developing a new camera trap data management tool
7 July 2017 12:00am
Leverage Space Technology for Wildlife Protection with the European Space Agency Kick-start Grant
5 July 2017 12:00am
Trialing Audiomoth to detect the hidden threats under the canopies of Belize
27 June 2017 12:00am
Pairing Scientists and Citizen Scientists with AI Assistants
18 May 2017 7:06pm
Machine learning, meet the ocean
10 May 2017 12:00am
Acoustics for Human-Wildlife Conflict Prevention, Anti-poaching, and more
27 April 2017 6:35pm
Welch Labs - Learning to see
31 March 2017 11:10am
15 Risks and Opportunities for Global Conservation
31 March 2017 12:00am
Conservation Leadership Programme 2017 Award
21 November 2016 12:00am
We Can Have Oceans Teeming with Fish with FishFace Technology
10 November 2016 12:00am
Tracking megafauna with satellite imagery
11 October 2016 5:08pm
Zoohackathon: 'END LOOP - Coding to end wildlife trafficking'
22 September 2016 12:00am
Video: Discover the SMART Approach
20 July 2016 12:00am
Passive Acoustic Monitoring: Listening Out for New Conservation Opportunities
29 June 2016 12:00am
Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge Accelerator Bootcamp
24 June 2016 12:00am
Digitising powerlines in bird migratory pathways
14 June 2016 8:53pm
Computer Vision to Identify Individual Animals
29 May 2016 4:52am
6 June 2016 11:17am
Hi Jason,
Thanks for sharing this demo, it's interesting to see the fluke id process in action. Is this part of the flukebook project? How do you see the project progressing - are there opportunities for people to get involved or challenges it would be helpful to get outside input on?
Cheers,
Stephanie
TEAM Network and Wildlife Insights
28 April 2016 12:00am
Is Google’s Cloud Vision useful for identifying animals from camera-trap photos?
20 April 2016 12:00am
ContentMine: Mining Helpful Facts for Conservation
5 April 2016 12:00am
Disruptive Technology: Embracing the Transformative Impacts of Software on Society
10 March 2016 12:00am
Ecotech Grants from the Captain Planet Foundation
18 February 2016 12:00am
Upcoming GIS and Remote Sensing Courses
9 February 2016 12:00am
[ARCHIVED] Job: ML developer at Skytruth
3 February 2016 1:22pm
Report outlines 2016's most pressing conservation issues
3 February 2016 12:00am
Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge: Winners Announced!
22 January 2016 12:00am
Introductions
10 December 2015 8:13pm
10 December 2015 8:41pm
To start things off...
I'm David J Klein. My background is in deep learning, machine learning, neuroscience, neuromorphic computing, and signal processing. I've been doing the startup thing Silicon Valley for the last 11 years after being in academia for a while. I've worked on products ranging from speech recognition systems, to cloud-based deep learning platforms. These days, some use the blanket term "AI".
For the last several years I've been developing software for Conservation Metrics which gives their analysists the ability to use deep learning to process large volumes of audio and image data from remote sensors in order to monitor population density changes of endangered species, detect collisions of birds and bats with infrastructure, and find rare and elusive species.
More broadly, I'm interested in integrating many disparate sensing domains from eDNA, to land-based sensors, to GIS data in order to provide tools to conservation scientists and ecologists that will enable them to develop a higher resolution understanding of the health of ecosysems around the globe and their response to positive or negative human interventions.
I'm looking forward to interacting with you all. Please let me know what other questions you have for me, and other ways I can help.
Regards,
David
17 January 2016 9:08pm
Hi,
I am jason Holmberg from WildMe.org. I am one of the developers of Wildbook (wildbook.org), an open source data management platform for wildlife research. I'm using ML as part of the IBEIS.org project to boost and metascore multiple computer vision algorithms for individual humpback and sperm whales. David, I would love to speak offline if you have the time: [email protected].
Cheers,
Jason
Google Releases Tensor Flow
18 November 2015 12:10am
20 December 2015 7:05pm
"TensorFlow, you see, deals in a form of AI called deep learning. With deep learning, you teach systems to perform tasks such as recognizing images, identifying spoken words, and even understanding natural language by feeding data into vast neural networks. "
Would this be applicable to an acoustic monitoring network? For example. my research has shown tigers have unique, identifiable vocalizations down to the individual and sex. If this software is applied to my recording network for tigers, would it be able to automatically recognize and categorize these individuals?
For example: when it hears Tiger 108, it would know and then input that it heard Tiger 108 at a particular time and date.
11 January 2016 12:38pm
The catch will be (and for any neural network or AI type learning I would expect the same) the training phase. If you are able to tell the sounds apart or identify a specific sound as belonging to a certain individual, the AI should afterwards be able to automatically identify the critical factors needed to distinguish the voices of the individuals. But it will need enough input from each individual as well as the different vocalizations used by tigers. AFAIKT it will be able to do this automatically afterwards, but I am not sure if (a) you will get enough identifiable vocalisations and (b) with a wide enough range of typical tiger vocalisations for it to be really reliable. Training on zoo animals might work? I am also interested in this, but for jackals instead of tigers.
11 January 2016 2:30pm
I'd like to suggest our open source package Wildbook (http://www.wildbook.org) as a base data management platfor for this. I agree with the above that there are a number of challenges around the vocalizations themselves, but having the identity information in a good database and data model is a great foundation. That's what we're doing for our computer vision/deep learning project at www.IBEIS.org.
Our non-profit WildMe.org is running both. Feel free to contact us with questions. We have played with time series matching (often used for speech recognition)...but actually for whale flukes. Would be happy to discuss potential for audio ID.
Deep Learning Image Recognition of Species In Global Wildlife Crime Reporting
31 December 2015 7:28pm
Big Data and Conservation: Deluge or Drought?
22 December 2015 12:00am
31 March 2017 11:45am
Ah! Thanks for posting this Tom. It's such a well designed, simple to understand video series, and the backing track is utterly delightful.
Given the growing applications of machine learning for conservation, I've been wondering if a 'machine learning 101 for conservation' webinar or article might be a worthwhile resource to look into for our community. In looking for a link to put in here to a UCL course I know exists on this topic, I actually just came across this article: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO MACHINE LEARNING IN ECOLOGY. Seems that Jon Lefcheck had the same thought as me and got right down to it.
If you're interested in more introductory, practical resources on machine learning, do let me know below! Also, if you know of any other go to tutorials that you've found useful, please share them.
Steph