Groups
Every day, mapping and spatial analysis are aiding conservation decisions, protected areas designation, habitat management on reserves and monitoring of wildlife populations, to name but a few examples. If you are excited by the ways in which GIS is used in conservation, this is the group for you!
Ceres Tag sends just in time alerts and GPS location to have the power to track and trace.
The software and apps used and built by the conservation tech community are as varied as the species and habitats we work to protect. From fighting wildlife crime to collecting and analyzing data to engaging the general public with unique storytelling, apps, software, and mobile games are playing an increasingly large role in our work. Whether you're already well-versed in the world of software, or you're a hardware expert looking for guidance from the other side of the conservation tech field, this group will have interesting discussions, resources, and ideas to offer.
Quick overview of Firetail 9
Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used in the field to analyse information collected by wildlife conservationists, from camera trap and satellite images to audio recordings. AI can learn how to identify which photos out of thousands contain rare species; or pinpoint an animal call out of hours of field recordings - hugely reducing the manual labour required to collect vital conservation data.
Press Release for International Tiger Day – July 29th, 2022: For the first time ever, wild tigers and their prey have been detected by AI-powered, cryptic cameras that transmit the images to the cell phones and computers of park managers. Just as important, the elapsed time from the motion sensor triggered by the passing tiger, to running the AI, to transmission to the cell network, to the Internet, and to the end user is less than 30 seconds, making this technology a true real-time system.
Anyone can become a citizen scientist - even experts! If you're excited about exploring new areas of conservation tech, contributing to projects, or developing and launching your own citizen science projects or apps, this is the group for you.
A new web portal for annotating bird sounds has been opened called Bird Sounds Global (BSG). It is part of project LIFEPLAN, and its key objective is to develop global, automated software for bird sound identification.
Over the last few years the conservation movement has been enthusiastically deploying new technologies that make it possible to observe and protect the natural world in ways once unimaginable. But are there any potential risks we need to consider as we deploy the new, exciting technologies?
"A drone emitting orca sounds will be used in attempt to guide the animal, whose health is fast deteriorating"
Want to talk about sensors that don't quite fit into any of our tech-specific groups? This is the place to post! From temperature and humidity to airflow and pressure sensors, there are many environmental sensing tools that can add valuable data to core conservation monitoring technologies. With the increasing availability of low-cost, open-source options, we've seen growing interest in integrating these kinds of low bandwidth sensors into existing tools. What kinds of sensors are you working with?
Ceres Tag sends just in time alerts and GPS location to have the power to track and trace.
eDNA is a molecular conservation tech tool that can be used to detect species presence in samples taken directly from the environment. To date, eDNA has been used for species detection, biomass estimation, diet analysis, reconstruction of past flora and fauna, and wildlife disease detection. Still a relatively new area of conservation tech, eDNA is in a phase of rapid innovation and growth, with improved ease of use and more accessibility allowing this technology to find new uses in the field and lab.
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
Used to pick up signals from tracking gear on the ground, collect images of wildlife and habitats from the air, gather acoustic data with specialized hydrophones, or even collect snot samples from whales' blowholes, drones are capable of collecting high-resolution data quickly, noninvasively, and at relatively low cost.
This WhaleSeeker article discusses how reliable distribution data depends on accurate labelling from survey images, and how AI can improve this process.
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