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!
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Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Project leader of MoveApps | Movement ecology
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- @theindieg
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Running a small electronic engineering company focused on large scale sensor networks. We have interest in bioacoustics with bat and bird recorders, as well as a host of environmental sensors.
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- @hailin
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I am a scientist in charge of animal AI identification at the Tangjiahe Nature Reserve in Sichuan. My main job is to use AI to identify giant pandas and infer where they will appear in the future and conduct biological analysis of feces. I would like to join this community to com
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R & D Tech | Industrial Designer | Wildlife Management Technology
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- @jsulloa
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Instituto Humboldt & Red Ecoacústica Colombiana
Scientist and engineer developing smart tools for ecology and biodiversity conservation.
- 3 Resources
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University of Florida (UF)
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- @Valluc
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- @alekseisaunders
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Wildlife conservationist, ichthyologist, now pursuing a career in Software Engineering and Web Development
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- @Robincrocs
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Wildlife biologist, works with Caimans and Crocodiles
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PhD student at the University of Wuerzburg, working on the influence of climate change on animal migration, especially the Northern Bald Ibis.
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Article
HawkEars: a high-performance bird sound classifier for Canada
Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute
HawkEars is a deep learning model designed specifically to recognize the calls of 328 Canadian bird species and 13 amphibians.
13 May 2025
Link
Survey on Earth Observation in Wildlife Ecology
Helena Wehner
Hi together, I am working on detecting causalities between land surface dynamics and animal movement by using satellite-based earth observation data. As this is might be your expertise I kindly ask for your support...
8 May 2025
Link
Weed-AI: Supporting the AI revolution in weed control
Amber Balfour-Cunningham
Weeds, by definition, are plants in the wrong place but Weed-AI is helping put weed image data in the right place. Weed-AI is an open source, searchable, weeds image data platform designed to facilitate the research and...
7 May 2025
Careers
Global Science Data Management and AI Graduate Intern
World Wildlife Fund
The intern will help the Global Science team expand our understanding of nature-based solutions through artificial intelligence (AI) and support our efforts to create a model for data collection and analysis that can...
18 April 2025
Article
Driving off-highway vehicles (OHVs), which contributes to habitat degradation and fragmentation, is a common recreational activity in the United States and other parts of the world, particularly in desert environments...
8 April 2025
Article
Nature Tech for Biodiversity Sector Map launched!
Carly Batist and 1 more
Conservation International is proud to announce the launch of the Nature Tech for Biodiversity Sector Map, developed in partnership with the Nature Tech Collective!
1 April 2025
Funding
$3 millions of funding for NGO in Brazil using AI for conservation / $ 3 milhões em financiamento para ONGs no Brasil que usam IA para conservação!
1 April 2025
Funding
Multiple grants
Frank van der Most
I have been a bit distracted the past months by my move from Costa Rica to Spain ( all went well, thank you, I just miss the rain forest and the Ticos ) and have to catch up on funding calls. Because I still have little...
28 March 2025
Funding
AI Weather Quest
Alex Rood
The AI Weather Quest, organised by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), is an ambitious international competition designed to harness artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in...
25 March 2025
InsectSet459 - the first large-scale open dataset of insect sounds, featuring 26,399 audio clips from 459 species of Orthoptera and Cicadidae.
24 March 2025
Careers
Naturalis is looking for a postdoc in AI for Ultrasonic Bioacoustic Monitoring
24 March 2025
Funding
The Compute for Climate Fellowship is a global R&D funding program that empowers climate tech startups to leverage advanced cloud computing and AI in the fight against climate change.
22 March 2025
June 2025
event
Maximilian Sittinger
event
Nalini
July 2025
October 2025
event
Lacey Hughey and 3 more
September 2024
event
Vanesa Reyes
event
Vanesa Reyes
73 Products
Recently updated products
16 Products
Recently updated products
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| There's quite a few diy or prototype solutions described online and in literature - but it seems none of these have made it to market yet as generally available fully usable... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Sensors | 6 months 1 week ago | |
| As others have said, pretty much all image models at least start with general-subject datasets ("car," "bird," "person", etc.) and have to be refined to work with more precision... |
+20
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 6 months 2 weeks ago | |
| This is a thread for anyone who has questions about AI for Conservation Office Hours 2025.We're once again teaming up with Dan Morris from... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Community Base, Geospatial | 6 months 2 weeks ago | |
| One thing I love about software is that in an ever-changing landscape of languages, frameworks, and tools, you can never stop learning.... |
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Software Development, AI for Conservation | 6 months 2 weeks ago | |
| Hi Eugene!Interesting project!I already signed up to test it!Cheers,Lars |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 6 months 3 weeks ago | |
| I am certainly a somewhat vertical thing with a lump on top, so I get it... |
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AI for Conservation | 6 months 4 weeks ago | |
| Hi all! I wanted to open a discussion on a topic that I've been thinking about ever since I entered the job market-- how to get a... |
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Software Development, AI for Conservation, Early Career, Open Source Solutions | 7 months ago | |
| That's great, thanks Lars! |
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AI for Conservation | 7 months ago | |
| I did a short presentation on our work with the polar bear alarm in the Wildlabs Variety Hour October 30th.It can be found here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr2Q8bUJZ8U... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict, AI for Conservation | 7 months 1 week ago | |
| Comma.ai would be your best bet. Not sure if it's officially open source but was started by a noteable hacker with an open source ethos. Could try reaching out to them. |
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AI for Conservation | 7 months 1 week ago | |
| For the record now that this is here:This error typically occurs when the wrong number of classes is given to timm.create_model. You should try to specify num_classes=30... |
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Camera Traps, AI for Conservation | 7 months 2 weeks ago | |
| WildMon, Terra Genesis, The VF Foundation, Thaksin University, and the Wanakaset Symbiosis Network have teamed up on a new project in... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Community Base | 7 months 2 weeks ago |
AI in Ornithology
1 November 2024 1:10pm
6 February 2025 9:50am
Hi Adrien,
Submissions are open for the special addition. Please email David Ehlers Smith - david.ehlers.smith@birdlife.org.za for more details. We are also soliciting reviewers.
Best,
Yvette
Summer Internships at SDZWA (Conservation Technology Lab)
6 February 2025 3:49am
SDZWA Conservation Tech Summer Fellowship
5 February 2025 9:09pm
Giving different types of labeled data to the community - solutions?
5 February 2025 4:19pm
PhD scholarship within environmental data science
3 February 2025 4:39pm
Webinar: Wildlife Drones’ Dragonfly – Revolutionizing VHF Tracking Technology
3 February 2025 4:31am
Automatic acoustic annotation (Deep Voice) - Looking for new projects and collaboration.
31 January 2025 4:28am
Software Developer - Key Conservation
28 January 2025 11:36pm
[deadline Jan 31] Climate Change AI workshop @ ICLR 2025 in Singapore
21 January 2025 6:33pm
BIOSPACE 2025
Nature Tech Unconference
Data science/analyst interested in volunteering for research or app development
17 January 2025 5:28am
Living Data 2025
16 January 2025 6:30pm
Looking for bird and bat audio datasets and related research for biodiversity AI project
8 January 2025 11:12am
13 January 2025 5:28pm
Thank you very much!
15 January 2025 10:38pm
I have made a bird audio classifier for New Zealand birds. My dataset is the wrong region for you, but you're welcome to use any of my code. https://github.com/Wologman/Kaytoo The tool its self can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1X5j77w7qw9ExdnA2P7-RM-2FwgJcFjR0
Regards,
Olly
16 January 2025 9:38am
Hey, please find here a dataset about nocturnal bird calls in Europe
[2412.03633] NBM: an Open Dataset for the Acoustic Monitoring of Nocturnal Migratory Birds in Europe
Abstract page for arXiv paper 2412.03633: NBM: an Open Dataset for the Acoustic Monitoring of Nocturnal Migratory Birds in Europe
ICLR 2025
15 January 2025 4:58pm
Senior Firmware & Systems Engineer
15 January 2025 4:56pm
Postdoc on camera trapping, remote sensing, and AI for wildlife studies
15 January 2025 4:53pm
Thesis Collaboration
4 January 2025 5:15pm
7 January 2025 12:32pm
Hi Simon,
Did you already contact INBO? Both biologging and citizen science are big themes at INBO. Last year we had a master thesis on camera trapping invasive muntjac. You can send me a private message for more info!
14 January 2025 3:30pm
Hi Simon,
We're a biologging start-up based in Antwerp and are definitely open to collaborate if you're interested. We've got some programs going on with local zoo's. Feel free to send me a DM if you'd like to know more.
15 January 2025 8:30am
Hi Simon,
We (Reneco International Wildlife Consultants) have an ongoing collaboration with a local University (Abu Dhabi, UAE) for developing AI tools (cameratrap/drone images and video analyses) and biomimetic robots applied to conservation (e.g https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954124004813 ). We also have a genetic team working on eDNA. Field experience could be possible, in UAE or Morocco.
Feel free to write me back if you may be interested and would like to know more
State of the art thermal imaging core and the zoo
28 October 2024 6:12pm
12 January 2025 9:04pm
I would also be interested - looking at starting a project that need observation of large african animals with nocturnal habits... Holy grail with unlimited funding would be a grid of 100's of cameras :-)
13 January 2025 9:15am
I love those numbers 😀 indeed a holy grail. I’ll send you a private mail.
13 January 2025 9:23am
@HeinrichS there’s still time for you or anyone else to make a funding submission to the wildlabs 2025 grants ❤️❤️❤️
I haven't applied for wildlabs funding, but I would love for others to apply that want to use my systems. My preference goes to those who want to use the most units :-)
Webinar: Drone-based VHF tracking for Wildlife Research and Management
9 January 2025 11:45pm
Which LLMs are most valuable for coding/debugging?
25 September 2024 5:48pm
4 October 2024 7:53pm
Thanks, Lampros!
29 October 2024 11:10am
When it comes to coding and debugging, several large language models (LLMs) stand out for their value. Here are a few of the most valuable LLMs for these tasks:
1. OpenAI's Codex: This model is specifically trained for programming tasks, making it excellent for generating code snippets, suggesting improvements, and even debugging existing code. It powers tools like GitHub Copilot, which developers find immensely helpful.
2. Google's PaLM: Known for its versatility, PaLM excels in understanding complex queries, making it suitable for coding-related tasks as well. Its ability to generate and refine code snippets is particularly useful for developers.
3. Meta's LLaMA: This model is designed to be adaptable and can be fine-tuned for specific coding tasks. Its open-source nature allows developers to customize it according to their needs, making it a flexible option for coding and debugging.
4. Mistral: Another emerging model that shows promise in various tasks, including programming. It’s being recognized for its capabilities in generating and understanding code.
These LLMs are gaining traction not just for their coding capabilities but also for their potential to streamline the debugging process, saving developers time and effort. If you want to dive deeper into the features and strengths of these models, you can check out the full article here: Best Open Source Large Language Models LLMs
9 January 2025 8:51pm
thanks kristy! super helpful list.
Conservation International - AI Innovation Manager
7 January 2025 6:26pm
What the mice get up to at night
6 January 2025 8:06am
7 January 2025 1:09pm
And I see now they can walk vertically up walls like Spider-Man.
PhD Scholarship - Urban Kākā Ecology and Conservation
6 January 2025 4:24pm
PhD Scholarship - Recognising Taonga with AI: Facial Recognition for Kākā Conservation Management
6 January 2025 4:22pm
DeepForest Code Walkthrough - Airborne Machine Learning for Biodiversity Monitoring
6 January 2025 3:24pm
Ai for soil nutrient analysis
24 December 2024 6:42pm
30 December 2024 3:46pm
We'd love to see this added to The Inventory, our wiki-style databse of conservation tech tools, R&D projects, and organizations! Check out the user guide to learn more about how to add a page for your app. Give a shout with any questions!
5 January 2025 1:10am
Thank you for the comments. The app is not made available on the app or google store yet. It is applicable on android systems and does not need a high level skill to operate however one would need to be taught how to use the app and make meaning of the data.
5 January 2025 1:17am
New PhD - Drones, seaweeds & climate change
30 December 2024 11:33am
4 November 2024 6:00am
Thanks for flagging! We might be interested to submit our work on acoustic monitoring system.