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!
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
- @ZoeDagan
- | She/her
I'm Zoe, an ecologist at the intersection of SaaS, conservation, and community science. I build programs and advance projects that accelerate solutions to our most urgent climate and conservation challenges.
- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 10 Groups
- @crazybirdguy
- | Him
Field Biologist at Yayasan Cikananga Konservasi Terpadu, Indonesia, with experience and interest mainly in ornithology, citizen science and bioaccoustic
- 0 Resources
- 9 Discussions
- 12 Groups
- @emilydorne
- | she/her
DrivenData
Lead Data Scientist and developer of zamba, a tool for automatic species classification from camera traps
- 0 Resources
- 5 Discussions
- 5 Groups
PhD Candidate in autonomous marine biodiversity modelling
- 0 Resources
- 11 Discussions
- 8 Groups
FruitPunch AI
CTO and Founder of FruitPunch AI
- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
- 11 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 17 Groups
- @ptynecki
- | Piotr
Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience in application design, development, testing and deployment. Highly experienced in Health Care, Life Science and BigData projects. Artificial Intelligence researcher (NLP, Computer Vision) with experience in Wildlife Conservation.
- 0 Resources
- 6 Discussions
- 4 Groups
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
Wildlife ecologist with a passtion for conseration technology.
- 0 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 4 Groups
Artificial Intelligence and Environmental Science Researcher
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
PhD Candidate at University College London. Research and develop wireless sensor networks for biodiversity monitoring. Currently working on a software package for AI bioacoustics classifiers on edge device.
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Saint Louis Zoo
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 13 Groups
Article
This article explores the use of IoT and Machine Learning Technologies in Ewaso Nyiro River, Kenya - which serves several communities as well as wildlife in Olpejeta Conservancy and Lewa Conservancy, among others. Data...
21 October 2021
Article
The International Journal of Computer Vision is calling for papers on Computer Vision Approach for Animal Tracking and Modeling. Visit the Springer website for further details and submission guidelines.
20 September 2021
Article
In this thought piece from Whale Seeker, Malcolm Kennedy considers the strengths of weaknesses of citizen science and AI, both used to analyze large amounts of conservation data, and discusses the importance of data...
19 August 2021
Article
Building Sustainable Support with Edge Impulse
Ellie Warren
Today, we're chatting with our WILDLABS Fellowship: On the Edge partners at Edge Impulse about how conservation tech funding and support can be more sustainable, and why reimagining how fellowships make an impact is so...
13 August 2021
Article
To celebrate our newly-lauched WILDLABS Fellowship: On the Edge, I spoke with the Edge Impulse team about why uniting the conservation and tech worlds to make funding, tools, training, and support accessible and...
9 August 2021
Article
Wildlife Insights Launches
Zoological Society London (ZSL)
Wildlife Insights is excited to announce the public release of their new platform! Read on to learn about all the useful features you'll find on Wildlife Insights, and check out WILDLABS' Tech Tutors episode with...
27 July 2021
Article
BearID Featured: Artificial Intelligence & Other New Technology In Bear Research
WILDLABS Team and 1 more
Our friends at BearID joined an EXPLORE.org live chat to discuss their work identifying the bears of Katmai National Park with powerful AI technology. Watch the full panel event below, or here on EXPLORE.org's Youtube...
1 July 2021
Article
New Papers: Methods in Ecology and Evolution
British Ecological Society
A new issue of Methods in Ecology and Evolution from the British Ecological Society is now available for download. In this issue, WILDLABS readers will enjoy research involving conservation dogs and non-invasive...
23 April 2021
Article
New Papers: Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation
Zoological Society London (ZSL)
ZSL's Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation journal has released new research for early view before inclusion in an issue. See the full list of recent open access research papers on RSEC.
22 April 2021
Community Announcement
Whether you spent the last year working in the field, lab, at home, or virtually, the WILDLABS community's conservation tech achievements were on full display in our annual #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge! Relive our...
25 March 2021
Article
Building Experts Into AI
Whale Seeker
In this article from Whale Seeker, you'll read about how human expertise plays a role in building strong AI algorithms and achieving accurate wildlife identification results, as well as the ethics of using AI in these...
15 March 2021
Article
Kaggle Competition: iWildcam 2021 - FGVC8
WILDLABS Team
This year's iWildCam competition is now live on kaggle. Go beyond just classifying species or detecting animals - this year the challenge focuses on counting how many individuals of each species are seen in a burst of...
12 March 2021
June 2025
event
Nalini
July 2025
October 2025
event
Lacey Hughey and 3 more
December 2022
November 2022
event
Stephanie O'Donnell
event
Carly Batist
October 2022
event
Stephanie O'Donnell
event
Stephanie O'Donnell
73 Products
Recently updated products
16 Products
Recently updated products
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hi everyone, We're excited to welcome Nicole Flores to Tech Tutors to walk us through getting started with Wildlife Insights! ... |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools | 3 years 9 months ago | |
| Hi all, We're excited to welcome Siyu Yang to Tech Tutors to chat about getting started with Megadetector! For all you AI... |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Data management and processing tools | 3 years 10 months ago | |
| You should join the Key Conservation app, which connects people and NGO's for specific needs, whether funding, time, or skills (programming included). Organizations can list... |
|
AI for Conservation | 3 years 11 months ago | |
| Thank you VERY much for that, Carly. I really appreciate it. I have only heard of the bear research project and was not aware of the others. This is very helpful. FYI: Most... |
|
AI for Conservation | 4 years 1 month ago | |
| The Atlas Coral Atlas combines high-resolution, seamless satellite imagery mosiacs, image processing techniques, machine learning, and... |
|
AI for Conservation | 4 years 2 months ago | |
| Sure thing, I'll email you directly. |
|
AI for Conservation | 4 years 2 months ago | |
| Hi Wildlabbers, This week is the last episode of Tech Tutors Season 2! Elizabeth Bondi tackled the question "How do I... |
|
AI for Conservation, Drones | 4 years 3 months ago | |
| Thanks Carly, These are great ideas. The movebank recommendation reminds me of some work from Save the Elephants that used its transparency to exonerate an elephant that had... |
|
AI for Conservation | 4 years 3 months ago | |
| This works very well, and can remove the movie strip icons from the edges of the thumbnails, which obscure animals just coming into the frame. https://icaros.en.softonic... |
|
AI for Conservation | 4 years 3 months ago | |
| Dan's comments about the need for technologists and conservationists to manage and share (properly annotated) data struck a chord with me, it was right at the end of the... |
|
AI for Conservation, Data management and processing tools | 4 years 3 months ago | |
| Hi Alex, that sounds great! Feel free to email me at luisa.teixeira@vizzuality.com, that may be simpler. |
|
AI for Conservation | 4 years 3 months ago | |
| Hi. Just watched the Youtube version (I'm in the unable to watch live hemisphere) and wanted to say that was a great talk. I wish it could have gone for another hour. I liked... |
|
AI for Conservation, Camera Traps | 4 years 3 months ago |
