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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@Tracks_Ecology
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Ecological Consultant focussing on the use of UAV and GIS to advance applied ecological reasearch

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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
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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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@Harry_Horsley

PhD Candidate in autonomous marine biodiversity modelling

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FruitPunch AI

CTO and Founder of FruitPunch AI

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@ptynecki
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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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Artificial Intelligence and Environmental Science Researcher

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@audevuilli

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.

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Saint Louis Zoo

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Description	Activity	Groups	Updated
Mangrove soundscape	Hi there Camilo, What an interesting project! If you are looking for a lower cost, but effective tools for acoustic monitoring you might want to look into two options: ...	Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Data management and processing tools, Sensors, Software Development, Latin America Community	2 years 10 months ago
Can deep learning identify seabirds? (species, within-species, individual)	Hi Yvan,If you find something which reaches your expectation and especially the ability to identify individual with plumage patterns I will be intereted.In the same idea that...	AI for Conservation, Camera Traps	3 years ago
Identify animal from Image	Have you considered creating a Kaggle competition? If you already have lots of images, and some that have been labelled, then this could be a good way to get people working on a...	AI for Conservation, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps	3 years ago
Hello there	Hi everyone, I'm new here! I'm a UX designer and researcher, and an animal lover. Excited to be part of Conservation Tech here at WildLabs...	AI for Conservation, Human-Wildlife Coexistence, Software Development, Wildlife Crime	3 years 1 month ago
New Conservation Tech Directory update	@gracieermi & I are happy to announce the latest update to the Conservation Tech Directory, bringing our total resources in the...	Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Community Base, Data management and processing tools, Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Geospatial, Software Development	3 years 1 month ago
Live Q&A on AI models to process Camera Trap Imagery: All about WildID	Thank you so much Netty, I really enjoyed it.Good luck to you all with your work.Keep well!	AI for Conservation, East Africa Community	3 years 1 month ago
Bird Acoustic Solution	Thank you @carlybatist , @Freaklabs and @MK . The inputs are very useful and I am progressing on my project based on that. Appreciate a lot.	Acoustics, AI for Conservation	3 years 1 month ago
Cofounder needed	Some folks doing work in this space - Wildlife Drones, Conservation Drones, UAV Wild, AfricanDrones, Oceans Unmanned, Geonadir.	Drones, AI for Conservation, Citizen Science, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech	3 years 1 month ago
Join Seeed’s “IoT Into the Wild Contest for Sustainable Planet 2022” on Hackster to Get 100 Free Hardware and to Win $14,000+ in Prizes!!	Dear Community,Together with Hackster.io, Seeed Studio is very happy to jointly organize “IoT Into the Wild Contest for Sustainable Plant...	AI for Conservation, Connectivity, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Sensors	3 years 2 months ago
AI for Conservation Office Hours: are you interested?	We've now wrapped our first run of AI for Conservation Office Hours and you can read my review of how it went and lessons learned here. Given the ...	AI for Conservation	3 years 8 months ago
Try our open-source automatic camera trap detection/labeling tool!	Hi everyone! We are spreading the word about a free, open-source tool called Zamba that automatically detects and...	AI for Conservation	3 years 9 months ago
Tech Tutors: How do I analyze large acoustic datasets using PAMGuard?	Hi Wildlabbers, This week's Tech Tutor Jamie MacAulay is talking about how to use and analyze large acoustic data using...	Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Marine Conservation	3 years 10 months ago

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