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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@Tysmucker
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Wildlife Biologist/Conflict Specialist and drone enthusiast in Montana

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@BioPhonia

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@JO973

Tropical ecologist working on community ecology and citizen science with ants as main research models

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@iska1818
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nature nerd, leopard and eagle lover

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@sheila_holmes

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@roboticscats
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Founder & CEO of RoboticsCats, a machine vision startup. Our AI wildfire detection SaaS is protecting forests & communities in Asia, Europe & LATAM.

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@kalado
| Kalado

I am Brazilian and a software developer. I have 20 years of experience in the field and I am currently the CTO of Log Nature, a company specialized in creating solutions for the environmental sector.

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@djoachim

I work in conservation on integrating the technology out there for custom solutions for partners.

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@Delia

Postdoc researcher -- engineering for biodiversity conservation

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@adanger24
| She/Her

Arribada Initiative

Senior Project Manager and Field Specialist

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@Samiul
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Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

Working for wildlife conservation in Bangladesh since 2010.

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@kklibra
| He

A biodiversity specialist with a penchant for using data, tools and applications for conservation and management of wildlife. That's IT.

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Description	Activity	Replies	Groups	Updated
Enhancing automated analysis of marine soundscapes using eco-acoustic indices and machine learning	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...		Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Marine Conservation	1 day 6 hours ago
🦛 MIT Moo Deng AI Challenge Human-Nature Interaction 🦛	MIT has this Moo Deng-based fun challenge! More seriously it relates to AI and human-nature interaction. I imagine people on Wildlabs would...		AI for Conservation	2 days 8 hours ago
PhD Advice	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...		Early Career, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Climate Change	6 days 4 hours ago
Documentary on Conservation	Hi Nick,At Wildlife.ai, from the other side of the world, we would be happy to chat with you. PM if interested Victor		AI for Conservation, Emerging Tech	4 days 5 hours ago
Software QA Topics	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...		Software Development, AI for Conservation, Open Source Solutions	5 days 23 hours ago
Prospective NSF INTERN	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...		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 2 days ago
Counting Problems in Conservation	This looks like a great application, thank you! I wonder if they are planning to run this study in future years.		AI for Conservation	2 weeks 5 days ago
'Boring Fund' Workshop: AI for Biodiveristy Monitoring in the Andes			Latin America Community, Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Drones, Early Career	3 weeks 1 day ago
AI Edge Compute Based Wildlife Detection	@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.		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps	3 weeks 2 days ago
Animal Detect is live	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 :)		AI for Conservation	3 weeks 2 days ago
We are releasing SpeciesNet	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...	+16	AI for Conservation, Camera Traps	3 weeks 3 days ago
No-code custom AI for camera trap images!	Interesting. Thanks for the explanation. Nice to hear your passion showing through.		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools, Open Source Solutions, Software Development	3 weeks 5 days ago

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