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!
No showcases have been added to this group yet.
- @Palinda
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Corporate Responsibility Specialist & Sustainability/ Climate Change Professional Helping Conservation, Restoration, Community Livelihood Development ESG strategy and Sustainable Development.
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Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)
I'm a Biologist and currently a master's student. My research focuses on understanding how birds respond to a restoration experiment in a Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest exclusive to Brazil through bioacoustics.
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- @APooran
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- @kristian.cuervo
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Applied Mathematics student in Denmark, interested in applications of mathematics to ecology and nature conservation. Currently interested in developing sensors for perimeter detection in wildlife conservations in Africa.
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- @MorganeLabadie
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I'm an ecology researcher with extensive experience of fieldwork and project management in international contexts. I specialise in wildlife, zoonotic diseases, data collection and analysis using mainly non-invasive techniques (acoustic, camera traps, etc.) and invasive techniques
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- @Jen_NZ
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- @cappel
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Wildlife Science PhD candidate working on computer vision with camera traps and bioacoustics
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- @valengsb
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GIS specialist for Audubon Americas | Biologist with an emphasis on Conservation and Sustainable Development | Innovative approaches in the study and monitoring of biodiversity for possible, biodiverse, and just futures.
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Ecologist at Noe NGO, Project manager in restauration, rewilding, and citizen sciences program for grassland ecosystems and wild pollinators
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- @capreolus
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Capreolus e.U.
wildlife biologist with capreolus.at
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- @JakobWiren
- | He,him
Swedish soon-to-be graduate engineer in AI/ML and robotics. Writing my master thesis in using decision trees for anti-poaching in Limpopo, South Africa. Am passionate about conservation, AI and travelling. Help me find a way to help you!
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- @fshort
- | He / Him
Boston University PhD Candidate, Biological Anthropology. Engaging in passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) of Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii), Bornean white-bearded gibbons (Hylobates albibarbis), and red leaf monkeys (Presbytis rubicunda)
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Article
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16 August 2025
Funding
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6 August 2025
Article
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Read about the advice provided by AI specialists in AI Conservation Office Hours 2025 earlier this year and reflect on how this helped projects so far.
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A free, self-paced course series for nonprofit professionals is available through August 31.
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24 July 2025
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Ginevra Bellini
Dear colleagues, I'd like to share with you the output of the project KIEBIDS, which focused on using AI to extract biodiversity-relevant information from museum labels. Perhaps it can be applied also to other written...
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hi Ollie, Great article, thank you! I mostly work with responsible AI in other contexts, at Doteveryone.org.uk and the Trust & Technology Initiative at the... |
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AI for Conservation | 6 years 5 months ago | |
| In case you missed it, last year the British Ecological Society published A Guide to Reproducible Code in Ecology and Evolution... |
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AI for Conservation | 7 years 4 months ago | |
| Hey Steffen, I know you've had a student working on this challenge for the past year - how is this project progressing? If you (or your student) have a moment,... |
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AI for Conservation | 7 years 9 months ago | |
| Hi Kate, It's really exciting to hear that you've now launched the challenge, congratulations on getting to this point! It's going to be interesting to... |
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AI for Conservation | 7 years 10 months ago | |
| If you're interested, you can check out the live recordings from past events (links below take you to the videos): August: The Blockchain The Blockchain's potential... |
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AI for Conservation | 7 years 10 months ago | |
| Hypraptive and Brown Bear Research Network collaboration to develop a deep learning, brown bear face identification system: BearID Project. [Disclosure: I am a member of... |
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AI for Conservation | 7 years 11 months ago | |
| It looks like they haven't updated for a couple of years do you know if it is still active or are they changing to a different system like tensor flow? |
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AI for Conservation | 7 years 11 months ago | |
| Here' s a press release we put out today talking about how we're using a deep convolutional neural network to find and curate whale... |
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AI for Conservation | 8 years 2 months ago | |
| For those interested: in the acoustics channel I have posted news on our sound event recognition sensor, using conv-net: https://... |
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AI for Conservation | 8 years 3 months ago | |
| Ah! Thanks for posting this Tom. It's such a well designed, simple to understand video series, and the backing track is utterly delightful. Given the... |
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AI for Conservation | 8 years 4 months ago | |
| Hello all, I'm looking at using a combination of machine learning and satellite imagery to identify and count individual animals,... |
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AI for Conservation | 8 years 10 months ago | |
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Enter the Zooniverse: Try Citizen Science for Yourself!
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Hawai'i Conservation Conference
Hawaiʻi Conservation Alliance
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ICEI 2020
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WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Recording: Drones
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Camera Trapping: Incredibly Useful Resources List
5 November 2019 12:00am
Who wants to learn Python? Courses to get you started coding
2 May 2016 3:13pm
1 March 2019 9:20am
Hello everyone what are you wating for..
All US, UK, India users can enroll courses from Intellipaat (the largest IT trainng company)
check some of thier superb training list:
29 October 2019 4:52pm
Chuck's Python for Everyone course is available these days at www.py4e.com, and he's also created a course called Web Apps for Everyone www.wa4e.com. Both excellent resources, and he's a strong proponent for (and creator of) open source educational tools in general.
Lucy
Plant-Powered Camera Trap Breakthrough
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Automated Identification of Indonesian Rhinos
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[ARCHIVED] Position: UI/UX Machine Learning Engineer
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[ARCHIVED] Position: Senior Computer Vision Research Engineer
8 July 2019 10:42pm
Hello buzzing World!
7 July 2019 6:55pm
ML at the Edge
28 June 2019 8:16am
31 August 2017 9:06am
A couple of years ago I completed the Coursera course Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) with Charles Severance. I found it really well paced and well taught. He's a very personable tutor, and has also written a free book Python for Everybody, available as a PDF.
I found the Coursera course on R Programming with Roger Peng to be more difficult to follow, but I'm not sure whether that was down to the teaching style or the language itself. For R, I'd definitely recommend the best place to get started is swirl - Learn R, in R!
Happy coding