Wildlife crime is one of the greatest challenges facing conservation, and one of the conservation tech world's biggest areas of innovation. With new ideas and solutions constantly being put forth to track and protect species targeted by poachers, manage protected areas and support rangers, and combat the growing online market for illegal wildlife products, the engineers and conservationists working to solve wildlife crime's many challenges rely on tools like machine learning, biologging, camera traps, acoustic monitoring, drones, mobile apps, and more.
This wide variety of overlapping technology makes our Wildlife Crime group a potential melting pot for many of our other communities, and makes it an especially exciting place to find collaborators working in different tech spheres to meet a common goal. Whether you're a camera trap expert looking for information on thermal vision to spot potential poachers, a machine learning expert with the skills to analyze acoustic data for gunshots, or a protected area manager seeking the latest integrated mobile tools, this group can connect you with the right members of our community!
Below, you'll find WILDLABS resources and conversations to help you understand how different technologies are being put to work in the fight against wildlife crime, and what conservation tech practitioners need for these tools to be effective.
Three Tutorials and Videos for Beginners:
- How do I use AI to fight wildlife crime? | Lily Xu, Tech Tutors
- WWF Wildlife Crime Technology Project | Eric Becker, Virtual Meetups
- SmartParks | Laurens de Groot, Virtual Meetups
Three Forum Threads for Beginners:
- Snare detection technologies | Rachel Kramer
- Tools for conservation management | Chris Muashekele
- Looking for Intelligence Database Software | Dexter Oelrichs
Three Articles for Beginners:
- Using AIS data to investigate the world's fishing ports, Max Schofield
- How do Wildlife Crime Experts view Remote Sensing Technologies used to Combat Illegal Wildlife Crime?, Isla Duporge
- Metal Detecting Sensors for Anti-Poaching, Sam Seccombe
Join this group now to get to know our community and start discussing solutions and ideas together!
Header photo: © Frank af Petersens/Save the Elephants
IT Engineer at The Conservation Tech Lab in Ol Pejeta Conservancy. |Endeavoring to implement tech solutions for conservation.
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WILDLABS Associate Specialist based in Southern California
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I am a devoted conservationist, natural resource management enthusiast who is passionate about linking community livelihoods development with environmental conservation and having a strong interpersonal skill, detail-oriented and able to use this trait in a conservation project.
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Countering poaching and IWT
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Worked as a mechanical engineer for a defence co, then software engineer, then for a research lab specialising in underwater robotics.
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Student at Aberystwyth University. Bug Fanatic🪲. Worked at Octophin Digital for my industrial year placement 🐙.
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This account is managed by the WILDLABS Team. Tag us or DM whenever you need help from our community team.
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Article
Mobilising East African nature restoration professionals
Matthew Creasey
Scholarships available for training courses focussing on nature restoration in East Africa
21 February 2023
1
Article
Researchers and conservationists are embarking on a bold initiative to save the world's most trafficked wild mammal — the pangolin
16 February 2023
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Careers
Technology to End the Sixth Mass Extinction. Salary: $104k-144K; Location: Washington DC or Seattle WA, potential hybrid; 5+ years of Full stack development experience; Deadline March 15th - view post for full job...
10 February 2023
2
Careers
The Senior Conservation Technology Specialist will be responsible for providing technical advice and capacity development to GWP project teams on conservation technology, distilling challenges and lessons from project...
22 September 2022
2
Article
Ceres Wild Rhino application
Kim Lane
An update on Ceres Tags products that are being used in conservation
22 August 2022
1
1
Careers
This position will support WCS’ training and capacity development work, specifically by supporting the global capacity building efforts of the Learning and Leadership for Conservation (LLC) program, including CLP and...
23 June 2022
1
Article
Julia Martínez Pardo et al., Published in Biological Conservation
4 June 2022
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Article
Authors: Ritwik Kulkarni, Enrico Di Minin
29 May 2022
2
Article
New wildlife forensics lab - Singapore
Carly Batist
Mongabay article on the recently launched Centre for Wildlife Forensics in Singapore, noting their successes so far in catching wildlife traffickers and uncovering trafficking routes
29 May 2022
1
Article
Our first WILDLABS Editorial Series is now available for download! Read the full Technical Difficulties collection and explore stories of challenges, failures, and lessons learned from the conservation tech community....
19 January 2022
Article
According to a news article published by Yahoo on September 28th, 2021, all Online technology companies in the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online reported removing or blocking over 11.6 million listings and...
6 December 2021
Article
Technical Difficulties: The Death of Giants
Christie Sampson
In her contribution to the Technical Difficulties Editorial Series, Christie Sampson shares how the devastating experience of losing collared elephants to an unexpected poaching threat lead to an improved understanding...
3 November 2021
March 2023
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Netty Cheruto
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January 2023
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hi, new to Wildlabs and happy to have found itI am currently working on drone design (fixed wing), for the purpose of monitoring illegal... |
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Drones, Marine Conservation, Wildlife Crime | 6 days 12 hours ago | |
| Hi all, In the last couple of months I have started using the Google 'Lens' app on my Android phone and I have been really impressed... |
|
Software and Mobile Apps, Wildlife Crime | 1 month ago | |
| Hello. I am a PhD candidate at Penn State University. I submitted a post to this group back in March and I am resubmitting... |
|
Community Base, Data management and processing tools , Remote Sensing & GIS, Wildlife Crime | 6 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hey all!I am Ayush, a core team member of my school's Robotics Club (Center For Innovation, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras). There... |
|
Drones, Sensors, Wildlife Crime, Early Career | 8 months 2 weeks 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... |
|
AI for Conservation, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Software and Mobile Apps, Wildlife Crime | 8 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Thanks for the sharing the information. In India as well solar-powered e-bike for forest guards was piloted (See https://www.thebetterindia.com/267799/nit-karnataka-electric-bike-... |
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Wildlife Crime | 11 months 3 weeks ago | |
| I am happy to share my co-authored paper titled “CITES enforcement information sharing—if you don’t know where you’... |
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Wildlife Crime | 11 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hello. I have reviewed the questions this am and all the questions on the survey that force a response should have a N/A or "I don't know" option. That... |
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Protected Area Management Tools, Wildlife Crime | 11 months 4 weeks ago | |
| Hi, I've been working on a buoy-mounted underwater acoustic recorder, kinda like what you're talking about. I'll send you a concept note. -harold |
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Wildlife Crime | 1 year ago | |
| Hi Wildlabbers, We're getting ready for tomorrow's episode with Tech Tutor Lily Xu, who'll talk to us about how machine... |
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AI for Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools, Wildlife Crime | 1 year 6 months ago | |
| Thank you very much! I'll email you now. |
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Wildlife Crime | 1 year 8 months ago | |
| Update (April 16): I just open-sourced the code at https://github.com/ecognize-hub/ecognize. I released it under the Apache 2.0 license so it can be used for pretty much anything... |
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Wildlife Crime | 1 year 11 months ago |
Drones for IUU (illegal fishing activities & vessel monitoring)
20 March 2023 6:00am
How do I select an ivory sampling method to generate intelligence data?
15 March 2023 11:56am
Google Lens as a citizen's tool to report IWT
24 February 2023 9:30am
Mobilising East African nature restoration professionals
21 February 2023 3:57pm
Operation Pangolin launches to save world's most trafficked wild mammal
16 February 2023 7:51pm
Hiring Full Stack Developer at Conservation X Labs
10 February 2023 5:35pm
New Paper - The sound of the illegal: Applying bioacoustics for long-term monitoring of illegal cattle in protected areas
12 January 2023 5:20pm
This study uses passive acoustic monitoring to record the patterns of illegal cattle occurrence within protected areas in the Brazilian Pantanal.
Frontiers Symposium: Digital tools for reversing environmental degradation
5 October 2022 10:23am
Senior Conservation Technology Expert Position (Consultancy) with the Global Wildlife Program
22 September 2022 5:35pm
Survey for Doctoral Research on Poaching in Protected Areas
29 August 2022 10:43pm
Ceres Wild Rhino application
22 August 2022 1:29am
29 September 2022 4:05am
A Triphibian Surveillance Vehicle
9 July 2022 2:23pm
Hello there
1 July 2022 5:00pm
Program Coordinator - Learning and Leadership for Conservation (LLC)
23 June 2022 2:45pm
New wildlife forensics lab - Singapore
29 May 2022 12:34pm
Solar-powered anti-poaching motorbikes
5 October 2021 5:05am
Electric motorcycles definitely have advantages in the bush, and I would like to see more of that! Apart from the advantages mentioned by that site, the low speed torque and clutchless nature of electric drives make it a natural for rough terrain.
The bikes you linked to show their purebred sports/competition pedigree. Workhorse motorcycles for the rough look very different, for instance the German and Russian sidecar bikes of WW2, and the scooters used in farms today in SE Asia (especially Vietnam) often tow trailers or have sidecars and they handle offroad conditions well enough. Interdiction in flagrante delecti is where speed and agility are paramount, but I don't know how often that occurs, or if it is desireable.
They sure do look like fun though.
11 October 2021 11:17am
That an additional tool but I imagine that it will be only efficient in open terrain and mostly in southern African rainforest protected area. Not sure that it will be a game changer but might bring new ideas, let see how it goes.
2 April 2022 12:14pm
Thanks for the sharing the information. In India as well solar-powered e-bike for forest guards was piloted (See https://www.thebetterindia.com/267799/nit-karnataka-electric-bike-forest-surveillance-kudremukh-battery-range-specs/). It seems like a good technology but it has to be tested widely on different forest terrains...
Issues in CITES wildlife enforcement information sharing
2 April 2022 10:42am
Survey for Doctoral Research on Poaching in Protected Areas
11 March 2022 8:05pm
26 March 2022 10:57am
I tried to fill it out but it's not letting me finish because all the questions are set to be required? Some of them are not relevant or the info is unknown to me, but not all the questions have this as an answer option. Just something to consider FYI
28 March 2022 7:14pm
Hello. I have reviewed the questions this am and all the questions on the survey that force a response should have a N/A or "I don't know" option. That said, there are still some bugs that I have found with the survey. Please email me at [email protected] if you encounter any more issues and I will be happy to address them promptly. Thank you very much for taking the time to complete the survey.
Wendy
Anti-poaching CCTV and boat sensor
21 February 2022 2:02am
5 March 2022 6:06am
Hi,
I've been working on a buoy-mounted underwater acoustic recorder, kinda like what you're talking about. I'll send you a concept note.
-harold
Download Now: The Technical Difficulties Editorial Series
WILDLABS Team
19 January 2022 12:00am
Tech Companies Block More than 11.6 Million Transactions for Endangered Wildlife Online
Yahoo
6 December 2021 12:00am
Technical Difficulties: The Death of Giants
Christie Sampson
3 November 2021 12:00am
Technical Difficulties: Expect the Unexpected
Colby Loucks
27 October 2021 12:00am
Technical Difficulties: Cleared for Takeoff
Eric Becker
20 October 2021 12:00am
Technical Difficulties: Understanding the Realities
Colby Loucks
13 October 2021 12:00am
NParks opens Singapore’s first Centre for Wildlife Forensics
National Parks Board (NParks) - Singapore
20 September 2021 12:00am
Tech Tutors: How do I use AI to fight wildlife crime?
1 September 2021 10:59pm
Looking for - Intelligence Database Software
14 June 2021 11:01am
22 June 2021 1:48am
Hi Phil,
Thank you very much! I had not considered them but they are a viable option for sure! The biggest concern would be the security of storing sensitive information online via AWS (or alternative) but lets see if there is a solution.
I'll dig around and come back to you on it! Have a great day
8 July 2021 8:31am
Hi Dexter
We have a bunch of tools for you guys at Natual-solutions.eu ...
Ave a look at https://geonature.fr/ its alll open source, we can translate it all for you if needed ...
Please fell free to email us at
9 July 2021 12:56am
Thank you very much! I'll email you now.
17 February 2023 1:50am