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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@wkcmark

My main interest is in the application of geospatial technology for ecology and conservation

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@bradnahill
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SEE Turtles

Brad has worked in sea turtle conservation & ecotourism for 20+ years. He is the lead writer of Sea Turtle Research and Conservation and co-author of the Worldwide Travel Guide to Sea Turtles. He has won the President's Award from the International Sea Turtle Society.

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@Maxime

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@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.

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@crazybirdguy
| Him

Field Biologist at Yayasan Cikananga Konservasi Terpadu, Indonesia, with experience and interest mainly in ornithology, citizen science and bioaccoustic

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@emilydorne
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DrivenData

Lead Data Scientist and developer of zamba, a tool for automatic species classification from camera traps

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@Harry_Horsley

PhD Candidate in autonomous marine biodiversity modelling

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@sakoarts

FruitPunch AI

CTO and Founder of FruitPunch AI

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@jnsanchez

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@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.

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@matobler

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

Wildlife ecologist with a passtion for conseration technology.

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@tratsakatika

Artificial Intelligence and Environmental Science Researcher

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Description	Activity	Replies	Groups	Updated
Automated species detection from camera traps	This can be done, happy to help :) But I think I need to understand the situation a little bit more. Do you already have the data for training / inference? Do you have any...		AI for Conservation	5 years 2 months ago
Team for Building of ML app for horse identification and conservation	Hi there this post on Conservation X labs recently came up on designing softwarre for individual horse recognition: https://...		AI for Conservation	5 years 3 months ago
AI for camera trap public data	Wildlife Insights launched their online platform hosting over 4 million camera trap images. They use AI to automatically classify the...		AI for Conservation	5 years 5 months ago
[ARCHIVED] Workshop on Deep Learning Methods and Appliocations for Animal Re-Identification	Hey everyone! My colleagues and I are hosting a workshop on Animal Re-ID, and the submission deadline is a little less than a month...		AI for Conservation	5 years 6 months ago
Who wants to learn Python? Courses to get you started coding	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...	+7	AI for Conservation	5 years 6 months ago
Conservation biologists find new applications for AI tools	Hi all! This is a great article summarizing new applications for AI for conservation, and highlights @vsahai 's work with...		AI for Conservation	5 years 9 months ago
[ARCHIVED] Position: UI/UX Machine Learning Engineer	Wild Me (wildme.org) is looking to retain a UI/UX Machine Learning Engineer to help translate advanced ML into beautiful interfaces...		AI for Conservation	5 years 10 months ago
[ARCHIVED] Position: Senior Computer Vision Research Engineer	Wild Me (wildme.org) is looking to hire a second, Masters or PhD-level Senior Computer Vision Engineer to focus on individual ID of...		AI for Conservation	5 years 10 months ago
Hello buzzing World!	Hi, I would just like to introduce our Project BEESWAX7 and announce that today we acheived two milestones for success; we recorded bee...		AI for Conservation	5 years 10 months ago
ML at the Edge	There's a discussion over in camera traps about the design of a device to run autonomously (in an inaccessible location) with reliable...		AI for Conservation	5 years 11 months ago
New open data site for fisheries	I got to help TNC launch fishnet.ai over the weekend, a home for training data for fisheries monitoring & computer vision AI. We have a...		AI for Conservation	5 years 11 months ago
Workshop & Challenges on Computer Vision for Wildlife Conservation (CVWC) at ICCV 2019	Please consider submitting to this workshop and/or challenge which may be relevant to your work: Call for Papers and Call...		AI for Conservation	5 years 11 months ago

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