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!
- @Gabonia
- | He/him
GABriel ONIfade A. (GABONIA / mrGab), is an educator, a CS and AI advocate, a Data Engineer, an AI Engineer, an Entrepreneur, and curriculum developer based in Brooklyn, New York (NYC DOE District 19). With a background in Systems Engineering, Gabriel specializes in CS & AI Edu.
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- @siddharth119
- | He/Him
Co-founder of Habitat Robotics, a conservation-tech non-profit
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- @Kwabs22
- | He
I'm a dynamic environmental conservationist driving change through research and innovation. I merge farming experience with agroforestry skills and drone technology, fueled by a passion for sustainable agriculture, championing a greener future for a sustainable food system.
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Conservation X Labs
Inventor/Engineer at Parula Innovations, Hardware Engineer for Sentinel at Conservation X Labs, (Recovering) Field Biologist
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Research software engineer working in computer vision for animal behaviour
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Xeno-canto
Co-founder and admin of Xeno-canto.
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- @annavallery
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Seabird biologist experienced in research and applied conservation. Dedicated to conducting and using innovative research to inform conservation decisions.
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- @yvetteehlers
- | she
I am the regional ecologist for South-Eastern KwaZulu-Natal at Ezemvelo KZN Wildllife and a honorary research fellow at the Centre for Functional Biodiversity at the School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
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I help conservation scientists spend less time on boring stuff.
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- @mlamb2
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PhD Student working on a computer vision model to detect colonial waterbirds along the Texas coast in aerial imagery
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- @ppalencia
- | Dr
I am Pablo Palencia, a postdoctoral researcher at Biodiversity Research Institute (IMIB). I am interested on develop and fine-tuning cutting-edge tools for wildlife management and conservation, wit a special mention of camera trapping ;)
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I'm a young conservationist from Ghana with over 7 years experience in Pangolin Conservation. My focus in Conservation is the human dimension of conservation. I am currently the manager for the Onepone Endangered Species Refuge.
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Frustrated by the limitations of the tools that were available for managing large camera trap data sets, Heidi Hendry and Chris Mann set out to develop something that met their needs, and thus, Camelot was born. In...
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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| If you are considering EduGenie for your school assignments, it is useful to read the detailed review on the website. The article at https://nocramming.com/edugenie-review... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Marine Conservation | 1 minute 2 seconds ago | |
| MIT has this Moo Deng-based fun challenge! More seriously it relates to AI and human-nature interaction. I imagine people on Wildlabs would... |
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AI for Conservation | 1 day ago | |
| Hi Ethan, It's indeed a competitive area. My advice for you (and anybody else seeking a PhD supervisor)...Do background research on each individual potential supervisor and always... |
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Early Career, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Climate Change | 4 days 9 hours ago | |
| Hi Nick,At Wildlife.ai, from the other side of the world, we would be happy to chat with you. PM if interested Victor |
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AI for Conservation, Emerging Tech | 2 days 11 hours ago | |
| Hi everyone,What should we share or demo about Software Quality Assurance? Alex Saunders and I, the two Software QA people at Wildlife Protection Solutions (WPS) are going to... |
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Software Development, AI for Conservation, Open Source Solutions | 4 days 4 hours ago | |
| My name is Frank Short and I am a PhD Candidate at Boston University in Biological Anthropology. I am currently doing fieldwork in Indonesia using machine-learning powered passive... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Data management and processing tools, Early Career, Emerging Tech, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Protected Area Management Tools, Software Development | 2 weeks 1 day ago | |
| This looks like a great application, thank you! I wonder if they are planning to run this study in future years. |
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AI for Conservation | 2 weeks 3 days ago | |
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Latin America Community, Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Drones, Early Career | 2 weeks 6 days ago | ||
| @LukeD, I am looping in @Kamalama997 from the TRAPPER team who is working on porting MegaDetector and other models to RPi with the AI HAT+. Kamil will have more specific questions. |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 3 weeks ago | |
| Super happy to finally have Animal Detect ready for people to use. We are open for any feedback and hope to bring more convenient tools :) |
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AI for Conservation | 3 weeks ago | |
| Hi Ștefan! In my current case, I am trying to detect and count Arctic fox pups. Unfortunately, Arctic fox does not seem to be included in the training data of SpeciesNet but... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 3 weeks 1 day ago | |
| Interesting. Thanks for the explanation. Nice to hear your passion showing through. |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Open Source Solutions, Software Development | 3 weeks 3 days ago |
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Can deep learning identify seabirds? (species, within-species, individual)
25 May 2022 8:24pm
21 June 2022 4:55pm
Update: I asked the same question on twitter so I'm sharing answers I got there:
Let's chat! We've been training models to run on trail cameras as images/videos are captured, and have worked on migratory birds along coastlines (more info: https://t.co/NzW4GO2Wqp)
— Henrik Cox (@henrik_cox) June 1, 2022
21 June 2022 5:41pm
Hi Yvan,
I dropped this into the AI for Conservation slack group as well, you got this reply this morning:
Steph
8 August 2022 11:12am
Hi Yvan,
If you find something which reaches your expectation and especially the ability to identify individual with plumage patterns I will be intereted.
In the same idea that Ultralytics, there is :
Lobe · GitHub
Machine Learning Made Easy. Lobe has 11 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.
Which could probably answer your first and second requirements.
And find here a great website showing all the IA-based camera software, you may find solutions or contact throw this list:
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Hi Jitendra.
If they are still images, many people are using Megadetector to analyze their images. I'm not sure how it will do in species classification, but it can tell you if there are images of interest in the shots. Others here can probably give you more detailed instructions on how to use it to batch process camera trap images.
2 August 2022 10:24am
Have you considered creating a Kaggle competition? If you already have lots of images, and some that have been labelled, then this could be a good way to get people working on a solution
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