Group

Wildlife Crime / Feed

Wildlife crime is a complicated challenge, so it's no wonder that the conservation technology community has explored solutions with every type of technology, all with the aim of predicting, preventing, and stopping crimes like poaching, illegal logging and fishing, and the sale of animal products like ivory. Join our Wildlife Crime group to meet others who are working on potential solutions to this global challenge and to add your own expertise to the conversation! 

discussion

Congo Basin activity?

greetings - I am helping coordinate a visit by the incoming director of national parks for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in mid-late June. He is very interested to...

1 0

greetings!

 

i sent you a PM regarding this, feel free to contact me however is most convenient for you -

 

regards,

chris 

See full post
discussion

Drones for IUU (illegal fishing activities & vessel monitoring)

Hi, new to Wildlabs and happy to have found itI am currently working on drone design (fixed wing), for the purpose of monitoring illegal fishing vessels. This will be done via...

5 3

Hi Frank! Thanks so much for your reply. Yes I have been looking into the same sort of workflow as with camera traps etc and seem to be getting somewhere (although am yet to have my own data set with which to check!). 

Yes, with the transponder issue, actually NONE of the boats here have them! There has been a push to get boats to install them further down the coast, but it was marred by the usual corruption and forceless enforcement. So everything will be visual, rather than working on any signal given out by the boats themselves. I am looking into ai programs that can analyse footage and as you say, it can be done with species so I see no reason it cannot be done with vessels given the parameters to look for

 

Seeing the pictures that @lmccaskill uploaded got my brain storming, so to say. Are you working with similar small boats? I was assuming bigger fishing ships that are registered somewhere. If the boats are not registered and there are no existing photos of them, and you want to identify the individual boats, you'll need to build your own catalogue to train an AI.

However / in addition, if the boats have written text on them with a name or a code or number, like in the pictures, then it should be ridiculously easy to identify boats. No AI needed. I discovered recently that my laptop has started showing find results based on text in photos. If different boats are of the same model, again like in the pictures, then there is nothing else left than what is written on them ... well, perhaps the color scheme.

... or perhaps face recognition if the image quality allows it. But then you'll be at square 1 again with training an AI.

See full post
discussion

Rhino horns in medicine 

Hi everyone,I'm new here :)I'm doing my thesis of biology bachelor about Rhino poaching. I wanted to ask here if yu have some articles about Lab data of the inefficiency of the...

0
See full post
article

Operation Pangolin launches to save world's most trafficked wild mammal

Researchers and conservationists are embarking on a bold initiative to save the world's most trafficked wild mammal — the pangolin

1 3
This is an amazing project. I'm eager to learn the conservation solutions from the projects that can be transferred to other species. We need this in Kenya, our biodiversity is...
See full post
article

Ceres Wild Rhino application 

An update on Ceres Tags products that are being used in conservation 

1 1
Some updates and a news report on the Malilangwe Trust application of devices; Ceres Trace and Ceres Wild
See full post
article

CERES TAG

Ceres Tag sends just in time alerts and GPS location to have the power to track and trace.

3
See full post
discussion

A Triphibian Surveillance Vehicle

Hey all!I am Ayush, a core team member of my school's Robotics Club (Center For Innovation, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras). There is one project - The Triphibian - we are...

2
See full post
discussion

Hello there

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! Feel free to reach out to me for...

1
See full post
discussion

Solar-powered anti-poaching motorbikes

CAKE (a Swedish off-road motorbike company) have just launched a solar-powered motorbike for rangers that will be less noisy, more stealthy and have better access to power. The...

3 0

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.

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.

See full post
discussion

Survey for Doctoral Research on Poaching in Protected Areas

Hello. I am a third year PhD candidate at Penn State University.  I am currently working on my doctoral research on geospatial data synthesis in protected areas for...

2 0

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

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

See full post
discussion

Anti-poaching CCTV and boat sensor

Hi all,  I work for Zoological Society of London (ZSL) in Thailand. We work closely with several wildlife sanctuaries and national parcs in the southern Western Forest...

1 0

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

See full post
article

Download Now: The Technical Difficulties Editorial Series

WILDLABS Team
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....

0
See full post
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...

0
See full post
article

Technical Difficulties: Expect the Unexpected

Colby Loucks
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...

0
See full post
article

Technical Difficulties: Cleared for Takeoff

Eric Becker
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...

0
See full post
article

Technical Difficulties: Understanding the Realities

Colby Loucks
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...

0
See full post