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!
Zoologist, currently serving as Head of Field Studies at Absolute Adventure (UAE). An environmental education professional with expertise in program development: field studies, wildlife conservation, research-based fieldwork, and outdoor education.
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- @LukeSwaby
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Data Research Scientist at a leading multinational aerospace and defence company, looking to transition to a career in conservation AI. Experience covering a broad range of cutting-edge research topics across bioinformatics and machine learning.
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- 5 Discussions
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Control and Automation Engineer, currently enrolled in the Automation and Systems Postgraduate Program at Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Brazil to obtain a Master's degree. Areas of interest: Multi Agent Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics.
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I'm a PhD student at UW working with the Smithsonian and Center for One Health Research. I develop models to predict and explain zoonotic disease patterns, with a strong emphasis on how these diseases impact wildlife populations and communities sharing the same landscape.
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World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
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- @Rewildman
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Eco-entrepreneur. Concerned with the fundamental interconnectedness of all things creative and environmental.
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Monitoring and Evidence Manager, Kent Wildlife Trust
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- @Naythin
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I’m an 18-year-old passionate about wildlife conservation and interested in how technology can help protect endangered species. I’m just starting out and eager to learn more about AI, and conservation.
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- @emmlub
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Interested in soil health and acoustic monitoring
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- @johnjoseph
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I am a mechanical engineer with diverse industry experience and a passion for innovative technology. As a technology and engineering entrepreneur, I focus on creating solutions that blend advanced engineering with a commitment to nature and forest conservation.
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- @tobiaspetri
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Schäuffelhut Berger GmbH
data science & algorithmic developmentfor movement ecology
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PhD student in animal biology working on AI for wildlife conservation
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Funding
Challenge: ElephantEdge
Smart Parks
Protecting elephants from conservation's most pressing issues like poaching and human-wildlife conflict requires big, bold, and innovative solutions. Hackster.io, Smart Parks, Edge Impulse, Microsoft, and several other...
11 August 2020
Article
This exciting news article about The Global Wetland Project's FishID platform discusses the latest improvements and developments in using deep learning to identify individual fish species underwater. In addition to...
28 July 2020
Article
BearID To Go
BearID Project
In this article from BearID Project, Director and Software Developer Ed Miller walks us through using their application to identify individual bears from photographs. Ed shows us how to easily use BearID remotely in the...
21 July 2020
Funding
Competition: Cornell Birdcall Identification
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Put your acoustic monitoring skills to the test in The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birdsong Identification Kaggle Competition. Participants will compete to identify as many bird vocalizations as possible in in...
8 July 2020
Article
Innovator Interview: Hack the Poacher
WILDLABS Team
Conservation technology largely consists of two categories: tools to monitor and study wildlife and their habitats, and solutions to mitigate or prevent negative human impacts. The fight against poaching in particular...
4 June 2020
Article
The Perfect Paw Print: Collecting Data with FIT
Ellie Warren
A couple months ago, we introduced you to the Footprint Identification Technique (FIT), a non-invasive way to build an identification algorithm from both wild and captive animals by photographing footprints. Today, we'...
3 June 2020
Funding
Competition: 2020 Hackaday Prize
Conservation X Labs
The 2020 Hackaday Prize competition has begun! This year, Conservation X Labs has partnered with the Hackaday Prizes as one of four nonprofits seeking tech-based solutions to urgent challenges. Conservation X Labs'...
26 May 2020
Article
Get To Know FIT
WILDLABS Team
We're excited to welcome the WildTrack FIT group to our community! Today, we'd like to introduce you to the Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) and share how you can incorporate this tracking method into your field...
6 May 2020
Funding
Competition: iWildCam 2020
WILDLABS Team
Want to compete in the iWildCam 2020 competition identifying species in camera trap images to support biodiversity monitoring efforts and automatic species classification model improvements? Because the Workshop on Fine...
4 May 2020
Article
The 2020 Arm Research Summit is accepting submissions from all research disciplines focusing on the role of technology in solving global challenges. Submissions should reflect the potential of sustainable, secure, and...
24 April 2020
Article
WILDLABS Tech Hub: WWF PandaSat
WILDLABS Team
At the 2018 London Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference, we announced the WILDLABS Tech Hub, an accelerator programme created to support the development and scaling of groundbreaking technological solutions addressing the ...
13 April 2020
Community Announcement
WILDLABS Community Call Recording: Rainforest X-PRIZE
WILDLABS Admin
Our second WILDLABS Community Call took place on April 1st to continue the discussion started by Ben Tregenna in our Data Science group, in which he suggested the idea of submitting a collaborative entry to the X-Prize...
30 March 2020
June 2025
event
Nalini
July 2025
October 2025
event
Lacey Hughey and 3 more
September 2024
73 Products
Recently updated products
16 Products
Recently updated products
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linkedin mainly. iNaturalist and eBird ofc but these are more communities than real social networks. But, and this is a real advice, a good RSS feed reader with all your... |
+5
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AI for Conservation, Community Base | 2 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hi Maureen, thanks a lot for this. Seemed more or less perfect so I applied :)Also didn't realise there was a slack community so I'll be scanning that too... |
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AI for Conservation | 2 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hey everyone,On Monday, we are starting the test phase of our first MVP version!We are looking for a limited number of testers and still... |
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AI for Conservation | 2 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hi Dan, Not right now but I can envision many uses. A key problem in RS is data streams for validation and training of ML models, its really not yet a solved problem. Any... |
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Emerging Tech, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Camera Traps, Connectivity, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Geospatial, Sensors | 3 months ago | |
| Thanks @eugenegalaxy . Much appreciated and I will go through this thoroughly! |
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AI for Conservation | 3 months ago | |
| Hey Bob, thanks for the kind words! Your articles on Winterberry Wildlife have really been a big inspiration for me! There are extremely limited numbers of articles on trial... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 3 months ago | |
| This is probably the most realistic one I've seen made by this tool (stable-difussion v1.5) |
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AI for Conservation | 3 months ago | |
| We just wanted to share this news outside the core robotics community - hoping to connect more with conservationists, researchers,... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones | 3 months 1 week ago | |
| Hi Lucie @luciegallegos ,Great to see ecoSecrets and happy to collaborate in any way I can! All EcoAssist's models are open-source, and the inference code too. With regards to... |
+10
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Software Development, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 3 months 1 week ago | |
| Another question. Right now pretty much all camera traps trigger on either PIR sensors or small AI models. Small AI models would tend to have a limitation that they would... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Open Source Solutions, Software Development | 3 months 1 week ago | |
| Hi Lucille,Thank you for your reply! We’d be really interested in learning more about your developments. We’ll contact you soon to arrange a discussion.Thank you.Best regards,... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Sensors | 3 months 2 weeks ago | |
| Hi Lorenzo,I highly recommend the OpenSoundscapes package (developed by the Kitzes Lab at U Pittsburgh) - there are workflows to build your own CNNs there, the documentation is... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Open Source Solutions | 3 months 2 weeks ago |
The Wildlife Society Conference
19 June 2023 5:59am
Catch up with The Variety Hour: June 2023
16 June 2023 11:43am
AI Prompt Engineer in Dublin, DGB Group
15 June 2023 3:32pm
CV4Animals: Computer Vision for Animal Behavior Tracking and Modeling
15 June 2023 12:39pm
FathomNet Workshop @CVPR 2023
15 June 2023 12:27pm
Apply for the Google for Startups Accelerator: Climate Change Middle East & Africa Program
9 June 2023 1:54pm
Celebrating World Oceans Day: Revitalizing the marine ecosystem with technology-driven engineered reefs to accelerate CO2 capture
9 June 2023 10:14am
Think | IBM
Experience an integrated media property for tech workers—latest news, explainers and market insights to help stay ahead of the curve.
Imageomics Institute Image Datapalooza, August 2023
2 June 2023 11:44pm
ISO Speakers for Emerging Technologies class.
31 May 2023 4:29pm
2 June 2023 2:08pm
Carly, that would be great! Thanks! I work with soundscapes and love the work of Rainforest Connection! I'll send you an email (@CUNY) to coordinate!
10 AI for the Planet Projects you should be excited about
25 May 2023 11:07am
Looking for AI volunteer positions
24 May 2023 5:41am
24 May 2023 3:45pm
Hi Donya! You might check out the Conservation Tech Directory to see what projects/organizations/tools best align with your interests and skills.
Director of Research
Mbaza AI recognized by UNESCO & new team member
17 May 2023 8:49pm
Happywhale: AI-Powered Whale Identification
16 May 2023 10:00am
Lecturer/Associate Professor of Ecology and Innovative Technologies
16 May 2023 9:25am
Deadline Approaching: Conservation Tech Award
15 May 2023 10:21pm
Photo Quadrats, AI, and MERMAID: A Case Study from Mozambique
12 May 2023 3:44pm
AI for Conservation Office Hours: 2023 Review
Dan Morris
and 1 more
11 May 2023 10:00am
Crowdsourcing individual ID for pop dyn?
1 May 2023 5:36pm
5 May 2023 6:15pm
That sounds like a really neat project! Do fish get re-caught often enough that individual ID is useful? Is sample bias (more data from popular spots) an issue?
GRO is the story of what on Earth is going on
5 May 2023 1:50pm
Using computer vision to understand bee vision
5 May 2023 1:10am
How can you tell if a photo is AI generated? Here are some tips.
29 April 2023 3:35pm
[Recordings Now Available!) EarthRanger User Conference
27 April 2023 5:52am
Looking to contribute
27 April 2023 2:41am
Artificial Intelligence and Conservation: Closing Session
26 April 2023 8:54pm
Artificial Intelligence and Conservation with Lily Xu
26 April 2023 8:41pm
Feathered forecast: Tech tools comb weather data for bird migrations
26 April 2023 2:50pm
Congo Basin activity?
30 March 2023 9:14pm
25 April 2023 5:08pm
greetings!
i sent you a PM regarding this, feel free to contact me however is most convenient for you -
regards,
chris
31 May 2023 10:21pm
Definitely interested! I'm in the ecoacoustics/acoustic monitoring space, working at Rainforest Connection and Arbimon.