Wildlife crime is one of the greatest challenges facing conservation, and one of the conservation tech world's biggest areas of innovation. With new ideas and solutions constantly being put forth to track and protect species targeted by poachers, manage protected areas and support rangers, and combat the growing online market for illegal wildlife products, the engineers and conservationists working to solve wildlife crime's many challenges rely on tools like machine learning, biologging, camera traps, acoustic monitoring, drones, mobile apps, and more.
This wide variety of overlapping technology makes our Wildlife Crime group a potential melting pot for many of our other communities, and makes it an especially exciting place to find collaborators working in different tech spheres to meet a common goal. Whether you're a camera trap expert looking for information on thermal vision to spot potential poachers, a machine learning expert with the skills to analyze acoustic data for gunshots, or a protected area manager seeking the latest integrated mobile tools, this group can connect you with the right members of our community!
Below, you'll find WILDLABS resources and conversations to help you understand how different technologies are being put to work in the fight against wildlife crime, and what conservation tech practitioners need for these tools to be effective.
Three Tutorials and Videos for Beginners:
- How do I use AI to fight wildlife crime? | Lily Xu, Tech Tutors
- WWF Wildlife Crime Technology Project | Eric Becker, Virtual Meetups
- SmartParks | Laurens de Groot, Virtual Meetups
Three Forum Threads for Beginners:
- Snare detection technologies | Rachel Kramer
- Tools for conservation management | Chris Muashekele
- Looking for Intelligence Database Software | Dexter Oelrichs
Three Articles for Beginners:
- Using AIS data to investigate the world's fishing ports, Max Schofield
- How do Wildlife Crime Experts view Remote Sensing Technologies used to Combat Illegal Wildlife Crime?, Isla Duporge
- Metal Detecting Sensors for Anti-Poaching, Sam Seccombe
Join this group now to get to know our community and start discussing solutions and ideas together!
Header photo: © Frank af Petersens/Save the Elephants
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Article
Ceres Wild Rhino application
Kim Lane
An update on Ceres Tags products that are being used in conservation
22 August 2022
Article
CERES TAG
Kim Lane
Ceres Tag sends just in time alerts and GPS location to have the power to track and trace.
22 July 2022
Careers
This position will support WCS’ training and capacity development work, specifically by supporting the global capacity building efforts of the Learning and Leadership for Conservation (LLC) program, including CLP and...
23 June 2022
Article
Julia Martínez Pardo et al., Published in Biological Conservation
4 June 2022
Article
Authors: Ritwik Kulkarni, Enrico Di Minin
29 May 2022
Article
New wildlife forensics lab - Singapore
Carly Batist
Mongabay article on the recently launched Centre for Wildlife Forensics in Singapore, noting their successes so far in catching wildlife traffickers and uncovering trafficking routes
29 May 2022
Article
Our first WILDLABS Editorial Series is now available for download! Read the full Technical Difficulties collection and explore stories of challenges, failures, and lessons learned from the conservation tech community....
19 January 2022
Article
According to a news article published by Yahoo on September 28th, 2021, all Online technology companies in the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online reported removing or blocking over 11.6 million listings and...
6 December 2021
Article
Technical Difficulties: The Death of Giants
WILDLABS Team
In her contribution to the Technical Difficulties Editorial Series, Christie Sampson shares how the devastating experience of losing collared elephants to an unexpected poaching threat lead to an improved understanding...
3 November 2021
Article
Technical Difficulties: Expect the Unexpected
Eric Becker and 1 more
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...
27 October 2021
Article
Technical Difficulties: Cleared for Takeoff
Eric Becker and 1 more
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...
20 October 2021
Article
Technical Difficulties: Understanding the Realities
Eric Becker and 1 more
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...
13 October 2021
June 2025
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hi Isla, The 3 threats are all situational and location dependent. For example, in South Africa there is a very well established muti industry and huge muti markets in KwaZulu... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years 3 months ago | |
| Wildlife Crime group, A set of Training Guidelines for Anti Poaching Field Rangers were launched... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years 3 months ago | |
| Hi everyone, Isla has shared the results of this survey in a new article in our Resources area. You can read her full analysis of the survey results here: https... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years 6 months ago | |
| That paper is available on Sci Hub. |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years 9 months ago | |
| I just saw this article about embedding GPS trackers in fake turtle eggs. It reminded me of the Nat Geo story from last year where they did... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years 9 months ago | |
| It sounds like @David+Baisch at Conservation X Labs just ordered a SCiO spec and developer's kit to test its sensitivity. They're interested in ... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years 9 months ago | |
| Hello all, A new rhino poaching report is out by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. ... |
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Wildlife Crime | 8 years 10 months ago | |
| Here's a few apps relevant to combatting wildlife crime. 1. ENV- Report Wildlife Crime - This app specifically focuses on... |
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Wildlife Crime | 9 years 1 month ago | |
| Hi Gautam, I think the best way is have them read the thread, and then get back to me with questions - I can then respond on a case-by-case basis. Our website is here:... |
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Wildlife Crime | 9 years 3 months ago | |
| Hi All, Rachel has asked that I tell you a bit about who we are and what we do and how we think we can help this group. We are... |
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Wildlife Crime | 9 years 3 months ago | |
| This post made me wander whether we could employ social media listening tools to identify illegal wildlife trade hotspots, levels, changes in ... |
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Wildlife Crime | 9 years 3 months ago | |
| The Journal of Animal Ecology with the Journal of Applied Ecology and Methods in Ecology and Evolution have published a... |
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Wildlife Crime | 9 years 4 months ago |
Camera traps designed for animals are now invading human privacy
22 November 2018 12:00am
A technologist's journey to protect wildlife: The reality and potential of conservation technology (recorded talk)
22 November 2018 12:00am
WILDLABS Virtual Meetup: Networked Sensors for Security and HWC Prevention
WILDLABS Team
12 November 2018 12:00am
Workshop: Ivory Identification, Cambridge UK
17 August 2018 11:37am
20 August 2018 2:43pm
Hi @Rachel+Kramer
I'll scout around and see what capacity for remote participate there might be. Leave it with me!
Steph
24 October 2018 3:37pm
Hi,
I went to this workshop, led by Sonia O'Connor and James Barrett, and I would recommend it. Both Sonia and James have many years of experience identifying ivories (including elephant, hippo, walrus, mammoth, narwhal, sperm whale etc..), ivory substitutes (such as vegetable ivory, a type of nut), ivory imitations (e.g. bones) and ivory fakes (e.g. plastics). Sonia in particular has worked with CITES and is keen on training more people working in IWT.
A few interesting messages taken from the session:
- having physical identification as the first step before more complex analysis, such as DNA testing, is more cost and time-effective and can aid front line law enforcement.
- ivory often refers to elephant tusks, but it essentially includes all forms of teeth.
- ivory patterning varies between species.
- the same material can look different depending on what's happened to it.
- identification errors can be made between young elephant tusks and hippo canines (they look really similar!).
- deliberate ageing of ivory, e.g. through staining, can be obvious from the dark colour.
- elephant ivory could be dimpled to make it look like walrus ivory.
- a worked piece of ivory, e.g. a figurine, could be made of a combination of different ivories (elephant, hippo etc.) and/or bone.
- some Japanese carvers have turned to using vegetable ivory as an ethical alternative to elephant ivory.
- over time, ivory and plastic discolour very differently.
- UV lights don't always help to ID between ivory and plastic, as some plastics are florescent!
Tusk Conservation Lecture 2018: Ted Schmitt
Tusk
15 October 2018 12:00am
WildCRU Forum on Conservation Geopolitics: Developing Conversations Across Disciplines
Conservation Geopolitics Forum
24 September 2018 12:00am
Webinar: Pangolin Trade in China (9 AM BST/ 3 PM ICT, 4 September, 2018)
3 September 2018 3:32pm
Online Course in Global Risks, Conservation and Criminology
27 August 2018 8:44pm
Call for citizen scientists to help unravel the mysteries of South Sudan’s forests
22 August 2018 12:00am
How to share data on species to help conserve them… whilst avoiding them being exploited by poachers
20 August 2018 12:00am
Ocean Hack: San Francisco, 10-11th September, 2018
One Ocean Collab
20 August 2018 12:00am
Open-source intelligence program?
3 July 2018 4:53pm
5 July 2018 8:40am
Hi Maike,
SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) is open source and has an upcoming intelligence plugin that will cater for your needs. Take a look at http://smartconservationtools.org/ and reach out to them for more information.
Kind regards,
Alasdair
9 July 2018 4:20pm
Hi Maike,
In this Quora post they mention 3 tools that maybe are of interest to you: Lumify, Visallo and Thomson Reuters Data Fusion Community Edition
https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-good-open-source-alternative-for-IBMs-i2-Analysts-Notebook
Regards,
Judit
17 August 2018 4:26pm
Hi Maike!
I used ORA Pro which was developed by Carnegie Mellon University. The 'lite' version is free to use and similar to IBM - http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/projects/ora/software.php
Best,
Sarah
SMART Trainers
14 August 2018 11:11am
Talk: “Forensics on the Frontline”, 25th July Cambridge
24 July 2018 11:42am
IWT Horizon Scan
10 April 2018 5:54pm
Virtual knowledge exchange (webinar) - Showcase of Innovative Technology to Combat IWT
16 March 2018 1:09pm
Tools & Guidance to address the Illegal Wildlife Trade
12 January 2018 5:59pm
14 February 2018 6:35pm
Hi @Nafeesa+Esmail - are you already in touch with the TRAFFIC Network about this survey?
National Geographic Society Announces Competition to Combat Illegal Fishing
1 February 2018 12:00am
Technology Empowered Conservation Lecture Series
18 January 2018 12:00am
Instant Detect 2.0: A Connected Future for Conservation
17 January 2018 12:00am
Wildlife innovation grants available!
11 January 2018 12:00am
Congratulations to Zoohackathon winners, team ODINN!
6 December 2017 12:00am
Download New Conservation Tech Guidelines: Camera Traps, Acoustics and LiDAR
11 October 2017 12:00am
Zoohackathon 2017 Rules @ZSL
8 October 2017 1:19pm
Hey teams,
Quick link to the devpost page to submit:
https://zoohackathon2017.devpost.com
Good luck!
Steph
Datasets for all ZSL problem statements 2017
5 October 2017 4:14pm
Funding Opportunity: Leverage space technology for wildlife protection
6 July 2017 12:36pm
30 September 2017 10:05pm
Is anyone else thinking of putting in a proposal, I'm looking for collaborators? Doug
Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge Acceleration Prize Winners Announced
29 September 2017 12:00am
DAS: A Scaleable Solution For Protected Area Management
26 September 2017 12:00am
Get registered~ Zoohackathon 2017 is around the corner!
14 September 2017 4:00am
14 September 2017 11:26am
Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge: Protecting songbirds with the power of citizen science
17 August 2017 12:00am
20 August 2018 2:39pm
Thanks for posting @StephODonnell . Do you happen to know if remote participation is feasible for community members not in Cambridge, and if workshop materials can be shared?