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!
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 1 Groups
- @cleo
- | She/Her
Southern African Wildlife College
I am ecologist working in African conservation areas who loves wildlife & wild landscapes. I increasingly recognize that conservation is about people, especially those living in & around protected areas. Finding ways to benefit marginalized people is my passion.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 14 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 14 Groups
- 7 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 5 Groups
Technologist, birder, photographer and mountain guide.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 18 Groups
- @vandita_shukla
- | she/her
PhD candidate studying drone flight planning for enabling tracking and identification of individual characteristics of wildlife; member of the WildDrone, an MSCA Doctoral Network funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 20 Groups
Movement Ecologist studying the where, why, and how animals move throughout our world. Current work is investigating the movement and energetics of large neotropical bats in a changing environment with ephemeral resources.
- 0 Resources
- 23 Discussions
- 22 Groups
- @TheDataEnthusiastic
- | He/Him
Hi, I'm pursuing Master's in Data Science. And I want work help protect nature and wildlife.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 14 Groups
I'm a computer engineer with a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence, I love nature and wildlife
- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- @claudlacroix
- | she/her
PhD fellow using deep learning to investigate marine fish acoustic signals and social behaviour.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
GreenLab
- 0 Resources
- 19 Discussions
- 8 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 2 Groups
Exciting opportunity for an experienced biodiversity monitoring expert in ZSL's conservation department
18 July 2023
Apply for funding (£500,000-£750,000) to develop software systems, which will help to improve biodiversity monitoring by automating the analysis of images and videos
12 July 2023
We are seeking applications from promising early-career scientists and data scientists with interesting, innovative, and viable research ideas for the Future Leader Fellowship
12 July 2023
Article
At Appsilon, we are always working to enable our users to get the most out of our solutions. With this in mind, we are happy to introduce two new add-ons to Mbaza AI.
4 July 2023
Apply to work with an absolutely all-star group developing AI/ML techniques and models for acoustic monitoring!
28 June 2023
The GSMA ClimateTech programme
21 June 2023
PhD opportunity aims at developing novel imaging methods and deep learning algorithms to describe and classify earthworms at Aarhus University.
21 June 2023
JICA, Japan’s International Cooperation Agency is seeking a digital partner with a proven track record in conservation technology as we launch a pilot project to test technologies to mitigate human-elephant conflict in...
19 June 2023
If you are passionate about making a difference in the world, enthusiastic about biodiversity, and excited about the potential of AI, check out this role!
15 June 2023
Job opportunity in Leiden, The Netherlands
9 June 2023
This May, AI for the Planet Alliance announced the Winners and Finalists for its 2022 call for solutions focused on advancing promising AI solutions that combat climate change and we think you should check them out!
25 May 2023
September 2024
event
October 2024
November 2023
October 2023
event
47 Products
Recently updated products
13 Products
Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
---|---|---|---|---|
I really hope you get this funding! You are so right about increasing the cost of poaching as a deterrent (snares destroyed, investment in snare cables and logistics all for... |
+13
|
AI for Conservation, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Wildlife Crime | 1 minute 21 seconds ago | |
Awesome! I am looking at something similar too - also awaiting funding. It's in SE Australia, also focusing on invasive species (red fox), protecting an area that has nesting... |
+3
|
AI for Conservation | 9 hours 23 minutes 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 | 5 days 6 hours ago | |
Yes, exactly! Alec and I are working together on this. |
|
AI for Conservation | 1 week 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... |
+42
|
AI for Conservation, Emerging Tech | 1 week 6 days 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 | 2 weeks 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 | 2 weeks 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 | 2 weeks 1 day 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 | 2 weeks 4 days 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 | 3 weeks 2 days ago | |
[oops, the same reply got submitted twice and there doesn't seem to be a "delete" button] |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 3 weeks 2 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... |
+6
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Open Source Solutions | 3 weeks 2 days ago |
Research Associate in Conservation Ecology at QUT
29 August 2022 2:54pm
Conservation Technology Research Internship
26 August 2022 4:58pm
Postdoc in the application of AI for wildlife conservation & management
26 August 2022 11:47am
Online Hackathon: Predators conservation in the Maasai Mara
22 August 2022 10:32am
Ceres Wild Rhino application
22 August 2022 1:29am
Lead Software Engineer for ARISE
19 August 2022 8:22am
Lead Software Engineer, Wildlife Insights
10 August 2022 11:06pm
Research Technician - Unoccupied Aircraft Systems Pilot and Geospatial Analyst
10 August 2022 10:40pm
Building a simple AI-powered, human-in-the-loop system to manage wildlife camera trap images & annotations
10 August 2022 8:12pm
Hi folks! I built out a human-in-the-loop annotation platform for Felidae Conservation Fund, a SF-Bay Area nonprofit last Fall using MegaDetector. I'm looking for feedback from this amazing community around areas of collaboration, especially data/software resources we can share!
3yr Postdoctoral Associate: Remote Sensing and Unoccupied Aircraft Systems
10 August 2022 5:29pm
Catch Up with the WILDLABS Variety Hour: August 2022
10 August 2022 11:44am
Technology may solve climate change problems, but it’s also causing them | VentureBeat
8 August 2022 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.'
Can deep learning identify seabirds? (species, within-species, individual)
25 May 2022 8:24pm
21 June 2022 4:55pm
Update: I asked the same question on twitter so I'm sharing answers I got there:
With quality photos and good labeled training data, I would say definitely doable! @ultralytics and their #YOLOv5 models would be a cool place to start!
— Abram B. Fleishman (@abfleishman) May 26, 2022
Let's chat! We've been training models to run on trail cameras as images/videos are captured, and have worked on migratory birds along coastlines (more info: https://t.co/NzW4GO2Wqp)
— Henrik Cox (@henrik_cox) June 1, 2022
Have a look at this paper:https://t.co/pmvrmvJAuS
— Damien R. Farine (@DamienFarine) May 27, 2022
Individual identification needs tens of pictures per individual of known individuals as training data, which will be the challenge here.
Absolutely feasible, to learn how to train a CNN to identify species from satellite images I did a few tutorials on ID species from photographs. With the right training dataset it should be fairly straightforward. For individuals? Easier on species with clear markers (fins).
— Samanta's Wildlife (@SamantaWildlife) May 27, 2022
21 June 2022 5:41pm
Hi Yvan,
I dropped this into the AI for Conservation slack group as well, you got this reply this morning:
Steph
8 August 2022 11:12am
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 Ultralytics, there is :
Which could probably answer your first and second requirements.
And find here a great website showing all the IA-based camera software, you may find solutions or contact throw this list:
Tiger, Tiger, in the Night... Now Visible in Real Time
5 August 2022 4:07pm
What is embedded ML, anyway?
5 August 2022 3:48pm
Biological Data Science Summer Workshop
5 August 2022 3:03pm
Wild Me is hiring
Identify animal from Image
2 August 2022 1:37am
2 August 2022 2:54am
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.
2 August 2022 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 3:36am
Earth Species Project - Senior AI Research Scientist
15 July 2022 6:40pm
The Foes and Floes of Labelling Aerial Pictures Manually
13 July 2022 12:43am
PyTorch Developer/Data Scientist at Pl@ntNet
7 July 2022 5:27pm
Hello there
1 July 2022 5:00pm
Intro webinar - The Biodiversity Digital Twin: a new solution to support protection & restoration of ecosystems
30 June 2022 1:22am
New Conservation Tech Directory update
27 June 2022 4:45pm
Live Q&A on AI models to process Camera Trap Imagery: All about WildID
21 June 2022 6:49am
23 June 2022 11:35am
Nothing too much more to share about WildID - I think you've had an earful already! But just to say that we really do enjoy working with our users, so don't be shy to get in touch for any questions, or think you would be bothering us if you need support. We're excited to bring more projects on board and extend our training sets to new locations, camera types and species.
For those in regions outside Africa, we are considering releasing a version of WildID that uses MegaDetector from Microsoft AI - so it will classify your images into empties, and then human, vehicle and animal (just those three classes). You would then be able to define your own species list, and edit the animal pictures to the correct species. Still a fair amount of work for you to edit, but you are probably doing the work already, and at least you would have an easy interface in which to do it, and particularly empties excluded already for you. Get in touch with us if this would be of use to you.
23 June 2022 11:43am
Thank you so much Kate for the excellent answers, explanations, insights and pointers; This was nothing short of Amazing!
Thank you all for joining us in this discussion; I hope this has been helpful and you now have a solution for processing your 1 million + camera trap imagery. If you have any questions for Kate, please feel free to drop them in this discussion thread- she is more than happy to answer. If you’d like to reach out to Kate directly, you can Direct message her here or send her an email at: [email protected]
Thank you!
23 June 2022 11:45am
Thank you so much Netty, I really enjoyed it.
Good luck to you all with your work.
Keep well!
Live Q&A session on AI models for Processing Camera Trap Imagery:A highlight of WildID.
22 June 2022 1:42pm
29 September 2022 4:05am