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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@PiaHoff

Working in relation to ecosystem services

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@jdomingo
| He/Him

I am an enthusiast for nature, technology development, biodiversity conservation and nature inspired design. I posses a technical and environmental background, and I am looking to explore the potential that advance technology has to empower the field of nature conservation.

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@och3k
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@RafaelCampos

CIBIO-InBio

I am a PhD student working on wolf bioacoustics. I am combining Audiomoths and Deep Learning into more efficient wolf monitoring protocols. My main field of interest is population ecology.

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@nadyam
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Michigan State University

Conservation geneticist at Michigan State University. Co-founder of iCatch. Solving problems in monitoring, traceability, and enforcement through rapid species identification tech.

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@HayleyWhyte

Passionate advocate for nature and experienced communicator, looking to explore opportunities to leverage technology in wildlife and marine conservation

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@nlubcker
| Dr

Results-Driven R&D Project Manager | Data scientist | I'm a versatile professional with 10 years of global experience in conservation and research.

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@mariahmeek
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Michigan State University

Dr. Mariah Meek is the PI and co-founder of iCatch, an Associate Professor at Michigan State University, and the Director of Research at The Wilderness Society.

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@Alex.S
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MSc Marine Biologist and Data Scientist, Co-Founder and CSO & CTO of Galene Pathways

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@lgovs

PhD candidate studying the ethics of tech in human-animal interactions.

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@Hansa
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@valeria
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Studio Pixel

AI integration architect, AI product manager. I've built the front-end of this website 😁

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Description	Activity	Replies	Groups	Updated
Conservation Technology for Human-Wildlife Conflict in Non-Protected Areas: Advice on Generating Evidence	In that case, you might want to keep an eye on the project from @Lars_Holst_Hansen		Camera Traps, AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Early Career, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Protected Area Management Tools	11 months 1 week ago
AI Identification Models on Thermal Data	No worries! I'll be trying the other one to see how it works. Thank you for your help!		AI for Conservation	11 months 2 weeks ago
VIHAR-2024 deadline extension, June 30th (Interspeech satellite event)	Fantastic!!		Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Build Your Own Data Logger Community, Community Base, Early Career, Ethics of Conservation Tech, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions	11 months 2 weeks ago
Recruiting for a paid study on Explainable AI & bird identification	Hi everyone! I’m sending some information for a paid user study about Explainable AI and bird identification that may be of interest:Our...		AI for Conservation, Citizen Science	11 months 3 weeks ago
AI & Gamified Citizen Science	This is so cool! I am 1000% going to see if they want to come talk about it at Variety Hou!		AI for Conservation, Citizen Science	1 year ago
Drop-deployed HydroMoth	Hi Sol,If the maximum depth is 30m, it would be worth experimenting with HydroMoth in this application especially if the deployment time is short. As Matt says, the air-filed case...		Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Data management and processing tools, Emerging Tech, Sustainable Fishing Challenges	1 year ago
AI-enabled image query system	Online citizen science platforms like iNaturalist and Macaulay Library contain a wealth of images but are hard to search using text. We are...		AI for Conservation, Citizen Science	1 year ago
AI for wolf ID	We're seeking training data for AI for wolf ID - we at T4C manage 3 Wildbook platforms: Wild North, Whiskerbook and the...		AI for Conservation	1 year ago
AI volunteer work	Hi Phani,An entry point might be to participate in a challenge related to conservation on:KaggleDrivenDataFruitPunchMax Planck Institute of Animal BehaviorYou could also reach out...		AI for Conservation	1 year ago
MegaDetector v5 release	[oops, the same reply got submitted twice and there doesn't seem to be a "delete" button]		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps	1 year ago
Pytorch-Wildlife: A Collaborative Deep Learning Framework for Conservation (v1.0)	Hi @zhongqimiao ,Might you have faced such an issue while using mega detectorThe conflict is caused by:pytorchwildlife 1.0.2.13 depends on torch==1.10.1pytorchwildlife 1.0.2.12...	+6	AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Open Source Solutions	1 year ago
WILDLABS AWARDS 2024 - No-code custom AI for camera trap species classification	Hi, this is pretty interesting to me. I plan to fly a drone over wild areas and look for invasive species incursions. So feral hogs are especially bad, but in the Everglades there...		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Open Source Solutions, Software Development	1 year 1 month ago

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