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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Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Working for wildlife conservation in Bangladesh since 2010.
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- @kklibra
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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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- @kateumbers
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alpine ecology, insect conservation, evolutionary ecology, behavioural ecology.
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Passionate about wildlife and impact investment with an academic, research and practitioner background in environmental science, environmental law and green criminology pursued in Central America, China, Tanzania and the United Kingdom I am driven to decolonise the research on c
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Passionate with conservation
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Newcastle University
Senior Lecturer in Biological Modelling. Interests in AI, spatial data, invertebrate ecology, species mapping
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- @JunglelaniTales
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We currently producing an animation series meant to teach and inspire climate action to kids. Looking forward to networking opportunities.
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- @Venance
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As a wildlife conservationist, I am deeply committed to the Ecology and Community Development. I help communities balance conservation with livelihoods, promoting beekeeping with the motto “Shusha Shoka, Pandisha Mzinga (Drop the Axe, Raise the Hive).
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National Geographic Society
Experience utilizing technology to inspire, educate, and create solutions to some of our biggest challenges. Currently, head of the National Geographic Society Exploration Technology Lab, overseeing the development and deployment of research and storytelling technologies.
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- @AthenaRycyk
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- @TheSarahShu
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Director of User Experience in B2B SaaS and PaaS. Background in helping users configure, visualize, and interpret big data to solve complex networking challenges. Passionate about conservation.
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- @magerk
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wildlife ecologist, Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, & Sustainability and Biology
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Link
New paper - "acoupi integrates audio recording, AI-based data processing, data management, and real-time wireless messaging into a unified and configurable framework. We demonstrate the flexibility of acoupi by...
7 February 2025
Careers
SPOTS Internship Programme
Georg Strunck
Strategic Protection Of Threatened Species (NGO) is looking for engineering interns at the Dinokeng Game Reserve, South Africa
6 February 2025
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Live and work in sunny San Diego for the summer, contributing to engineering projects as they relate to conservation technology.
6 February 2025
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SDZWA Conservation Tech Summer Fellowship
Kyra Swanson
The Conservation Technology Laboratory within the Population Sustainability department is seeking two fellows for summer 2025
5 February 2025
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Are you a data scientist interested in developing AI to help wildlife conservation?
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Software Developer - Key Conservation
Megan Cromp
Key Conservation is seeking an experienced Software Developer to join our team.
28 January 2025
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Senior Firmware & Systems Engineer
Alex Rood
Arribada is looking for a proactive Senior Firmware & Systems Engineer to join Arribada's experienced and passionate team of field conservationists and engineers. You will write and develop firmware and advise on...
15 January 2025
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The Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies (WFE), SLU, Umeå, is looking for a postdoc with strong interests in wildlife conservation technology.
15 January 2025
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I am thrilled to share that we are hiring for an AI Innovation Manager to help us build out CI's Nature Tech & Innovation Portfolio. You don't need to be a software engineer or AI expert to apply! We are seeking an...
7 January 2025
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We are seeking a highly motivated person with an excellent academic record, a good understanding of ecology and/or conservation and an interest in contributing to cutting-edge research on kākā conservation
6 January 2025
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Seeking a highly motivated person with an excellent academic record, a good understanding of artificial intelligence and computer vision/deep learning, and an interest in contributing to cutting-edge AI research on kākā...
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New PhD - Drones, seaweeds & climate change
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A PhD opportunity for anyone interested in coastal drone surveys, seaweeds, climate change and the chance to do a whole bunch of different computer modelling including AI-driven species distribution modelling to assess...
30 December 2024
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yep! Drop me an email at stephanie.odonnell@wildlabs.net and I'll get you a link. Steph |
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AI for Conservation | 5 years 11 months ago | |
| Artificial intelligence & Machine Learning Algorithms are transforming data analysis, but little is known about how they... |
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AI for Conservation | 6 years 2 months ago | |
| Hi Colin, At the BearID Project, we are working on a similar problem for brown bears. We are currently using machine learning methods developed for human facial recognition (... |
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AI for Conservation | 6 years 3 months ago | |
| 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 3 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 2 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 6 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 7 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 8 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 8 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 9 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 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 1 month ago |
