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WILDLABS logoWildlabs.net : The conservation technology network

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AI for Conservation / Feed

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.

event

Camera traps, AI, and Ecology

Dimitri Korsch

14 April 2023 10:08am

3rd International Workshop in Jena, Germany (7. - 8. September 2023)

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Dimitri Korsch

1 September 2023 8:06am

Are you ready for the event next week!? 17 talks, 4 sessions, 4 invited speakers - check out the schedule if you want more information:...
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discussion

Who's going to ESA in Portland this year?

Tom August

31 March 2023 9:27am

So who is going to be at the Ecological Society of America meeting this year in Portland, August 6-11th?It will be my first time at the conference, so I won't know many people...

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Dan Morris

5 April 2023 11:58pm

Indeed, I'll be there too!  I like to meet new conservation friends with morning runs, so I will likely organize a couple of runs, maybe one right near the conference, and one somewhere in a nearby park where we can look for wildlife.  The latter would probably be at an obscenely early hour, so we can drive somewhere, ideally see elk (there are elk within 25 minutes of Portland!), and still get back in time for the morning sessions.

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discussion

Rhino horns in medicine 

matilde stella

2 April 2023 2:22pm

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...

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Link

BearID Interview with AWS

Ellie Warren

29 March 2023 12:35am

Ed Miller of the BearID Project shared this great interview on Twitter and gave WILDLABS a shoutout! If you're new to the AI for Conservation community, you'll want to learn about the BearID Project, which began as a collaboration because of connections made through WILDLABS,...

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Link

AI has critical role to play in helping tackle the climate crisis, new Turing white paper finds

Stephanie O'Donnell

27 March 2023 12:04pm

Four key recommendations for how data science and AI can be better harnessed to tackle climate change: 1. Apply cutting-edge data science and AI to environmental decision-making. 2. Foster a community of AI specialists, environmental researchers and stakeholders across...

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https://www.turing.ac.uk/news/ai-has-critical-role-play-helping-tackle-climate-crisis-new-turing-white-paper-finds
article

Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Mbaza AI

Andrzej Białaś

16 March 2023 7:18pm

💙 Exciting news from Appsilon! Our flagship project, Mbaza AI, is expanding its impact on nature and biodiversity conservation. We’ve teamed up with the 🦏 Ol Pejeta Conservancy to build a model for classifying images of...

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discussion

Computer Science student looking to work for wildlife

Virgile Foussereau

5 March 2023 10:04pm

Hello everyone,I am a master student in Computer Science, with a specialization in AI and computer vision. I like to work with AI, computer vision, drones, sensors, autonomous...

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Devi Hall

14 March 2023 2:00pm

Great information! Thank you for sharing this. I actually have Masters in Zoology and have done some field work in Marine Conservation. Since then I have worked in Science education and eventually switched to Software Programming. My dream has always been to work in Conservation, however life happened and I had to give up on this pipe dream. I currently work as a Developer in a contractor role for the Federal Government. Would someone with my experience have an advantage in conservation Tech?

Tom August

14 March 2023 2:58pm

I think the real demand in conservation tech is for transdisciplianry individuals. If you look at all the stand-out people in this space they are people who occupy multiple domains that are traditionally isolated. These are people who talk fluently in computer science and ecology, for example. Not only this, they are also people who create and imagine in ways that intertwin ideas and concepts across these domains. Its these people, thinking in these ways, that lead to innovations that really move us forward. Some of these people started out where you are now, having crossed domains through their career and then seeing opportunities to bring these skills together in imaginative ways. 

Stephanie O'Donnell

14 March 2023 9:53pm

I couldn't agree more with both of these comments tom! I'm reading hundreds (literally hundreds) of applications for open WILDLABS roles at the moment, and the ones that stand out are those where it's really clear they're following genuine curiosity across different disciplines. If you're in conservation, it's the evidence of interest in tech (courses, projects, things you're trying and learning yourself). For tech, it's getting into conservation - all the things you mentioned. 

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discussion

Underwater Fish Datasets from the Mediterranean

Sebastian Lopez-Marcano

15 August 2022 11:45pm

Hi Wildlabs,I am Sebastian the project manager for FishID. We are currently in the last stretch of DevOps for the FishID platform. I am hoping this awesome network can help me on...

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Carly Batist

26 September 2022 9:32pm

Not sure if audio data would be of any use to you, but if so FishSounds has some - I just tried their search function and there is a location tag for 'Mediterranean & Black Sea'. 

You might try reaching out to the folks at Name that Fish, Innovasea, or perhaps an entity on the Fisheries Tech list would have Mediterranean stuff? 

Shir Bar

21 October 2022 7:52am

Hi,

If this is still relevant, you can try reaching out to the Belmaker lab, they do BRUV surveys in the eastern Mediterranean and have hours of video, some of it I believe is annotated. Particularly, Shahar might be helpful, he's the PhD student running point on the project.

Falk Viczian

2 March 2023 2:03pm

We have made available our underwater videos on YouTube as a playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnhVZKKy8WkZKriCIV6r7upWhHNVrU_7L 

It's about 1.113 short video clips with annotation and each is linked to the corresponding www.iNaturalist.org observations. The iNaturalist.org observations are research quality and have been uploaded to GBIF.org. The observations have been made between 2014 and 2022 around the Ionian Islands (Greece).

If you would need the original videos please contact me.

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discussion

Elephant Recognition

Simon Mathew

14 January 2023 10:01am

Hi,Could you help me understand more about the elephant recognition software? I have an Urgent Project which we can carry out.

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Stephanie O'Donnell

16 January 2023 2:30pm

Hi Simon, 

i've popped you an email too, but actually sharing some more information here about what you're after will mean you'll be able to get better help from our full community. 

What are you looking for in particular? It sounds like there is particular piece of software you've seen that could be useful in your work - do you know what it's called? What do you need to do - image recognition, call recognition? Alerts when calls happen or are you looking for something more detailed? The more you tell us about what you're trying to do the better we'll be able to help!

Steph 

Simon Mathew

26 February 2023 1:44pm

Hi Steph, 

This should be a simple project. Recently I came across a website with a sample video I am not sure whether it was from the wild Labs website. Where a camera is seen spotting a raccoon and giving an alert saying raccoon detected. My expectations are on similar lines, the only difference here is to change the raccoon to an elephant or a tiger. Please advice.

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article

The Arbimon newsletter is back! 

Carly Batist

23 February 2023 11:34pm

Rainforest Connection (RFCx) is bringing back the Arbimon newsletter for 2023! We're excited to share new features and tools of the platform, what's coming up, and some insights into our projects on bioacoustic...

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article

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

Alasdair Davies

16 February 2023 7:51pm

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

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Lilian Musembei

17 February 2023 1:50am

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...
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discussion

Call for Data: A Global Database of Tree Crown Footprints from RGB Imagery

Matt Allen

3 February 2023 11:22am

Hello! I am putting together a benchmark dataset for tree crown segmentation - do you have data and would you like to join our effort?Call for data: we're looking for...

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Carly Batist

3 February 2023 7:01pm

You should definitely talk with Ben Weinstein and co (the folks behind DeepForest), if you haven't already!

Liz Scott

10 February 2023 4:18pm

Bluesky have a commercial tree crown dataset available covering most of Great Britain (England, Wales and parts of Scotland). There is a canopy layer with approximate outlines of each canopy (the image on this page shows just circular crowns). It's created using aerial imagery.

 

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