AI for Conservation

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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.

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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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@sarah_dalrymple
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Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)

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Tech Matters

Project Director, Terraso.org (1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People): open source software for farmers, ranchers & communities.

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CTO of IoSA, the Internet of Small Animals. Creator of ProxLogs

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VerdantLearn

Sociable e-learning for conservation capacity building

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@Benjamin_Barca

NatureMetrics

Passionate conservationist based in Italy, currently focusing on eDNA and impact with NatureMetrics.

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Conservation biologist, executive director at the Tesoro Escondido Reserve Foundation in the Ecuadorian Chocó, working on participatory action research, environmental education, primate and amphibian conservation

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@Erika_Barthelmess

St. Lawrence University

Professor of Biology at St. Lawrence University

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Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

Hello! It's Emrose this side. I am freshly baked graduate and newbie bird enthusiastic.

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@Edonga
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Paul Edonga is from the Indigenous Pastoralist Tribes of Northern Kenya. A seasoned Leader in indigenous-led conservation of Endangered Beisa Oryx, African Small Antelopes their habitats & Dryland Forests. He's the founder of Save Beisa Oryx Community Resilience Trust-SBOC

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Description	Activity	Replies	Groups	Updated
Pytorch Wildlife v5 detection in thermal	I added plain old motion detection because megadetector v5 was not working well with the smaller rat images and in thermal.This works really well: Also, I can see...		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps	4 months 3 weeks ago
Birdweather Puc use as a passive sensor	Hello WalterThanks for your input. I have achieved better results with the puc when hooking it up to a powerbank. Have got them set up to "recording only", and GPS to low power...		Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Citizen Science, Sensors	5 months ago
Christmas wish list	great, this security cameras might be interesting for monitoring crop development and maybe other bigger pests like boars or some other herbivorous animals that could eventually...		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps	5 months ago
Tracking orangutans	In a recent call with researchers in Thailand. They have mentioned that they use passive chip readers to log data about chipped animals as they pass by.	+12	AI for Conservation, Animal Movement	5 months 1 week ago
Mirror images - to annotate or not?	Seems like we should include some rotations in our image augmentations as the real world can be seen a bit tilted - as this cropped corner view from our fisheye at the zoo shows.	+13	AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools	5 months 1 week ago
Conservation Data Strategist?	Bird Monitoring Data Exchange is a standard often used for birds data.	+4	AI for Conservation, Data management and processing tools, Emerging Tech	5 months 3 weeks ago
"AI for Conservation" Starter Pack on BlueSky	Hey everyone!As you might have heard, BlueSky is on hype now, with millions of users migrating to it from X. Including the scientific world...		AI for Conservation	5 months 3 weeks ago
MegaDetector V6 and Pytorch-Wildlife V1.1.0 !	Hi Zhongqi! We are finalizing our modelling work over the next couple of weeks and can make our work availabile for your team. Our objective is to create small (<500k...		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Software Development	6 months ago
Mass Detection of Wildlife Snares Using Airborne Synthetic Radar	Hats off to your team for this absolute game-changing technology! We rescue stray and wild animals in Taiwan, and the bulk of our work is saving animals maimed by wire snares...	+37	AI for Conservation, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Wildlife Crime	6 months ago
Instant Detect 2.0 and related cost	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...		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Sensors	6 months ago
AI Animal Identification Models	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	AI for Conservation, Camera Traps	6 months 1 week ago
+1 Q&A - AI for Conservation Office Hours 2025	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...		Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Community Base, Geospatial	6 months 1 week ago

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