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!
- @emilydorne
- | she/her
DrivenData
Lead Data Scientist and developer of zamba, a tool for automatic species classification from camera traps
- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @ahmedjunaid
- | He/His
Zoologist, Ecologist, Conservation Biologist
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 16 Groups
- @StephODonnell
- | She / Her
WILDLABS & Fauna & Flora
I'm the Executive Manager at WILDLABS.
- 152 Resources
- 665 Discussions
- 30 Groups
WILDLABS & Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
I hold a PhD in Biological Sciences and specialize in bioacoustics and passive acoustic monitoring of cetaceans in the Argentine Sea and Antarctica. Recently, I've also embraced computing to leverage technology in enhancing our conservation efforts.
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 14 Groups
Addax Data Science
Wildlife ecologist with a special interest in machine learning
- 0 Resources
- 11 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- @Adrien_Pajot
- | He/His
WILDLABS & Fauna & Flora
Hi! I am Adrien, a dedicated French ornithologist and engineer committed to biodiversity conservation. I joined the WILDLABS team as a project manager in October 2023!
- 13 Resources
- 55 Discussions
- 3 Groups
PhD Candidate in autonomous marine biodiversity modelling
- 0 Resources
- 11 Discussions
- 8 Groups
FruitPunch AI
CTO and Founder of FruitPunch AI
- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 11 Groups
I'm a software developer. I have open source projects in practical object detection and alerting that is well suited for poacher detection and a Raspberry Pi based sound localizing ARU project
- 0 Resources
- 191 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- @stefan_istrate
- | he/him
Machine Learning Researcher & Nature Photographer. Building conservation tech for biodiversity monitoring at Wildlife Insights.
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Sustainability Manager for CERES Tag LTD. An animal health company; animal monitoring, conservation, & anti-poaching/ rural crime. Wildlife, livestock, equine & companion. #CeresTrace #CeresWild #CeresRanch
- 2 Resources
- 19 Discussions
- 24 Groups
Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
Behavioural ecologist @CNRS in France - working mostly on ungulates in Europe and Africa
- 0 Resources
- 5 Discussions
- 6 Groups
WILDLABS and Fauna & Flora International are seeking an early career Vietnamese conservationist for 12-month paid internship position to grow and support the Southeast Asia regional community in our global...
11 January 2023
This position focuses on the ecology aspect of the project, while a second PhD in Ilmenau will be dealing with programming/AI development. Because of the high temporal resolution of our data, we can investigate how land...
9 January 2023
Careers
We are looking for someone who enjoys the craft of making to come and help run our London based lab.
5 January 2023
Seeking Software Engineer for Marine Science Lab a UC Santa Barbara
19 December 2022
Using satellite imagery to detect and classify the severity of cyanobacteria blooms in small, inland water bodies.
15 December 2022
a technology-led solution to understanding the honeybees of the wasp world
8 December 2022
The University of Alaska Fairbanks is seeking a research Post Doctoral Fellow to work in collaboration with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The position will focus on using Machine...
7 December 2022
Conservation partnership launches new award to advance biodiversity conservation from space
5 December 2022
Interested in a PhD exploring the potential of AI? Please consider applying to Realize Lab at the University of Michigan CSE.
23 November 2022
Article
This essay is the third in a series on the promise and challenges of using AI and machine learning to create a planetary environmental management system.
14 November 2022
We have a fully-funded PhD opening in the DARSA group. The project aims at developing novel algorithms and annotation tools for hierarchical classification, with profound and immediate applications to both agriculture...
8 November 2022
Careers
Working with a team of conservation practioners, scientists, and technologists, the Spatial Data Analyst uses leading-edge earth observation data in new and effective ways to inform conservation practice locally,...
8 November 2022
September 2024
event
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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There is a South African company Avior labs that successfully does drone surveys on game farms using AI to count and identify wildlife. The trick is to use both infra-red and... |
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AI for Conservation | 22 minutes 52 seconds ago | |
Thank you so much for your support. I am finding it really difficult to find the funding for the initial development. We need lots of engineering time to refine our detection and... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Wildlife Crime | 1 day 3 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 | 1 week 1 day ago | |
Yes, exactly! Alec and I are working together on this. |
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AI for Conservation | 1 week 5 days 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 | 2 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 | 2 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 | 2 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 | 2 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 | 3 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 | 3 weeks 6 days 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 | 3 weeks 6 days ago | |
Hi @zhongqimiao ,Might you have faced such an issue while using mega detectorThe conflict is caused by:pytorchwildlife 1.0.2.13 depends on torch==1.10.1pytorchwildlife 1.0.2.12... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Open Source Solutions | 3 weeks 6 days ago |
WILDLABS AWARDS 2024 - BumbleBuzz: automatic recognition of bumblebee species and behaviour from their buzzing sounds
12 April 2024 8:37am
17 April 2024 10:23am
Thanks Carly! I will keep anyone interested in this project posted on this platform. Cheers
Join the Seeed Vision Challenge and Explore Conservation Tech!
10 April 2024 9:15am
WILDLABS AWARDS 2024 - Enhancing Pollinator Conservation through Deep NeuralNetwork Development
7 April 2024 5:55pm
Job Opportunity - Wildlife Protection Solutions
5 April 2024 9:22pm
Completely irrational animals...
3 April 2024 7:13pm
3 April 2024 9:09pm
3 April 2024 9:20pm
4 April 2024 5:05am
Rescuers hope AI will help reunite orphaned whale with its family in B.C.
3 April 2024 4:43pm
Finwave, while currently in beta-testing, is being used to help reunite an orphaned whale with its family.
EcoAssist - Free AI models for camera traps photos identification
3 April 2024 7:16am
ibm-nasa-geospatial (IBM NASA Geospatial)
28 March 2024 9:22am
NASA and IBM have teamed up to create an AI Foundation Model for Earth Observations, using large-scale satellite and remote sensing data, including the Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) data.
Applying Open-Source AI to Camera Trap Imagery
27 March 2024 4:34pm
AI for Conservation!
4 March 2024 8:51pm
22 March 2024 12:29pm
Welcome, Have you considered participating in any of the AI for Good challenges. I find it is good way to build a nice portfolio of work. Also contributing to existing open source ML projects such as megadetector or to upstream libraries such as PyTorch is good way to getting hired.
GitHub - alexvmt/awesome-data-and-ml-for-good
Contribute to alexvmt/awesome-data-and-ml-for-good development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
22 March 2024 5:57pm
Thank you for the tip! I'll definitely consider contributing to open source projects and taking part in challenges :)
25 March 2024 5:22am
We could always use more contributors in open source projects. In most open source companies Red Hat, Anaconda, Red Hat and Mozilla, people often ended up getting hired largely due to their contributions on open source projects. These contributions were both technical such as writing computer code and non-technical such as writing documentation and translating tools in their local language.
Add Bio-accoustics support · Issue #441 · microsoft/CameraTraps
Please kindly add support for using pytorch wildlife platform for bio-acoustics to analyses audio recordings of insects, birds and animals including sounds that are inaudible to human ears. Having ...
GitHubThe Variety Hour: 2024 Lineup
22 March 2024 4:30pm
Catch up with The Variety Hour: March 2024
21 March 2024 7:39pm
21 March 2024 9:48pm
30 March 2024 3:08pm
31 March 2024 12:43pm
SLN Webinar: Tech for wildlife: The role AI and technology can play in nature conservation
18 March 2024 9:17am
BirdWeather | PUC
27 October 2023 7:45pm
2 November 2023 9:20pm
I love the live-stream pin feature!
14 March 2024 10:29pm
Hi Tim, I just discovered your great little device and about to use it for the first time this weekend. Would love to be directly in touch since we are testing it out as an option to recommend to our clients :) Love that it includes Australian birds! Cheers Debbie
16 March 2024 10:47pm
Hi @timbirdweather I've now got them up and running and winding how I can provide feedback on species ID to improve the accuracy over time. It would be really powerful to have a confirmation capability when looking at the soundscape options to confirm which of the potential species it actually is or confirm it is neither to help develop the algorithms.
Also, is it possible to connect the PUC to a mobile hotspot to gather data for device that isn't close to wifi? And have it so that it can detect either wifi or hotspot when in range? Thanks!
Data Manager and Technology Coordinator, ABC Global Climate Center
15 March 2024 5:01pm
The Freshwater Sounds Archive
15 March 2024 10:32am
Introducing The Freshwater Sounds Archive, a global database of sounds produced by freshwater species.
Submit your species-specific or unidentified sounds to the archive now and receive recognition for your contribution in a forthcoming data paper as a co-author!
Free AI Camera Trap Model for European Fauna!
12 March 2024 12:33pm
EcoAssist has now incorporated the Deepfaune v1.1 species identification model for camera trap images, capable of recognizing 26 European species. The model is developed by Deepfaune initiative. More information is available at: https://www.deepfaune.cnrs.fr/.
Labelled Terrestrial Acoustic Datasets
16 February 2024 10:24pm
8 March 2024 11:54pm
Thanks for sharing Kim.
We're using <1 mA while processing, equating to ~9 Ah running for a year. The battery is a Tadiran TL-5920 C 3.6V Lithium, providing 8.6 Ah, plus we will a small (optional) solar panel. We also plan to implement a threshold system, in which the system is asleep until noise level crosses a certain threshold and wakes up.
The low-power MCU we are using is https://ambiq.com/apollo4/ which has a built-in low power listening capability.
9 March 2024 6:25am
<1 mA certainly sounds like a breakthrough for this kind of device. I hope you are able to report back with some real world performance information about your project @jcturn3 . Sounds very promising. Will the device run directly off the optional solar cell or will you include a capacitor since you cannot recharge the lithium thionyl chloride cell. I had trouble obtaining the Tadarian TL-5920 cells in Australia (they would send me old SL-2770s though) so I took a gamble on a couple of brands of Chinese cells (EVE and FANSO) which seemed to perform the same job without a hitch. Maybe in the USA you can get Israeli cells more easily than Chinese ones?
Message me if you think some feeding sounds, snoring, grooming and heart sounds of koalas would be any use for your model training.
9 March 2024 7:01am
Really interesting project. Interesting chip set you found. With up to around 2mb sram that’s quite a high memory for a ultra low power soc I think.
It might also be interesting while doing your research thinking about if there are any other requirements people could have for such a platform with a view towards more mass usage later. Thanks for sharing.
Here's what you missed at World Wildlife Day 2024
7 March 2024 9:02pm
15 March 2024 2:42pm
EcoAssist - Free African species identification model for 30 species!
5 March 2024 5:10pm
1 April 2024 6:04pm
Machine Learning Postdoc Position, Understory
29 February 2024 11:56pm
Engineer in novel technologies and approaches for biodiversity monitoring
26 February 2024 6:12pm
Needing help from the community: Bioacoustics survey
14 February 2024 9:46am
24 February 2024 7:23pm
Was great to chat with you Sofia and I would encourage others in the Acoustics community to help provide input for Sofia's study!
26 February 2024 8:57am
Thank you so much for your encouraging words! I'm thrilled to hear that you enjoyed our conversation, and I truly appreciate your support in spreading the word about my survey within the Acoustics community. Input from individuals like yourself is incredibly valuable to my study, and I'm eager to gather as much insight as possible. If you know of anyone else who might be interested in participating, please feel free to share the survey link with them. Once again, thank you for your support—it means a lot to me!
Best regards,
Sofia
Tools for automating image augmentation
26 January 2024 2:33pm
16 February 2024 7:42am
Hi @arky !
Thanks for your reply.
I am running into pytorch/torchvision incompatibility issues when trying to run your script.
Which versions are you using?
Best regards,
Lars
18 February 2024 11:05am
@Lars_Holst_Hansen Here is the information you requested. Also run Yolov8 in multiple remote environments without any issues. Perhaps you'll need to use a virtual environment (venv et al) or conda to remedy incompatibility issues.
$ yolo checks
Ultralytics YOLOv8.1.4 🚀 Python-3.10.12 torch-1.13.1+cu117 CUDA:0 (Quadro T2000, 3904MiB)
Setup complete ✅ (16 CPUs, 62.5 GB RAM, 465.0/467.9 GB disk)
OS Linux-6.5.0-17-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.35
Environment Linux
Python 3.10.12
Install pip
RAM 62.54 GB
CPU Intel Core(TM) i7-10875H 2.30GHz
CUDA 11.7
matplotlib ✅ 3.5.1>=3.3.0
numpy ✅ 1.26.3>=1.22.2
opencv-python ✅ 4.7.0.72>=4.6.0
pillow ✅ 10.2.0>=7.1.2
pyyaml ✅ 6.0.1>=5.3.1
requests ✅ 2.31.0>=2.23.0
scipy ✅ 1.11.4>=1.4.1
torch ✅ 1.13.1>=1.8.0
torchvision ✅ 0.14.1>=0.9.0
tqdm ✅ 4.66.1>=4.64.0
psutil ✅ 5.9.8
py-cpuinfo ✅ 9.0.0
thop ✅ 0.1.1-2209072238>=0.1.1
pandas ✅ 1.5.3>=1.1.4
seaborn ✅ 0.12.2>=0.11.0
Conda Quickstart
Comprehensive guide to setting up and using Ultralytics YOLO models in a Conda environment. Learn how to install the package, manage dependencies, and get started with object detection projects.
18 February 2024 11:18am
Perfect thanks! I am still a novice using Python but my wife can help me!
3x Ai 4 Conservation Job Roles (UK)
15 February 2024 3:28pm
Exploring an ethical reflection tool for animal-focused tech (Survey)
13 February 2024 8:22pm
Computer Vision for Ecology Workshop 2025 Call for Applications
12 February 2024 9:29pm
Post-doc possition - Field spanning movement ecology, ecology of fear, bio-logging science, behavioral ecology, and ecological statistics
10 February 2024 7:20am
12 April 2024 8:41pm
Super great to see that there will be more work on insect ecoacoustics! So prevalent in practically every soundscape, but so often over-looked. Can't wait to follow this project as it develops!