Artificial intelligence has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons lately. However, there are some fields where AI is being used for good, such as in wildlife conservation. By using AI, conservationists can track and protect endangered animals much more effectively. Moreover, more accurate methods of monitoring the animals are possible, which is vital in conservation of endangered species.
Concerning the latter; many conservationists have argued that the best way to reduce poaching and decrease the rate of extinction is to counter it with technology that makes enforcement easier, such as in policing animal poaching by drones. Others point out that by using drones for tracking and rescuing animals, the process becomes far less expensive.
Rainforest Coartificial Connection, a San Francisco-based non-governmental organisation, is using artificial intelligence to prevent wildlife poaching in Africa.
Technology can also help in reducing costs incurred by traditional methods used for wildlife research. For example, an AI algorithm can be used to track if animals have moved from one habitat to another at a given time or not. This could lead to identifying areas where poaching takes place or increasing protection from poachers.
What Is AI In Wildlife Conservation
Artificial intelligence is a set of tools and technologies that are used to pursue a broader goal. It is the theory and practice of building machines that could act like humans do.
In this case, wildlife conservationists use AI in collecting, analyzing and storing data from multiple sources to manage wild animal populations.
In conservation of endangered species, artificial intelligence can help identify potential threats, monitor the animals’ whereabouts in real time and also alert wildlife officials if there is any cause for concern.
This gives conservationists the ability to get at an early stage to determine what should be done with regard to feeding strategies and anti-poaching strategies.
How AI Is Changing The Dynamics Of Wildlife Conservation
The technology is helping in collecting a lot more data that was once not possible to gather. This includes high-resolution videos, locator devices, infrared beams and even the scent of animals.
AI can also be used to compare data collected by different methods in order to find out that which is most effective. For example, by comparing data collected with radio-collars and satellite cameras, it helps conservationists know the distance traveled by predators.
Moreover, AI being used in wildlife conservation today makes it possible for scientists to perform complex analyses on large amounts of data that was never before handled without a specialized computer language.
Artificial intelligence has revolutionized modern research on endangered species. For example, a machine learning algorithm can be used to recognize and identify new species of plants and animals.
This makes it possible to register new species that were previously unknown to humans. In the coming years, it is expected that artificial intelligence will continue to make great strides in wildlife conservation by reducing costs and expanding capabilities.
It will also be helping us understand animals better than ever before. It might even become possible for conservationists to predict how animals will react in certain situations, which could save countless lives.
How AI Can Help Us Better Understand Wildlife
When it comes to understanding the behavior of wildlife, most conservationists still depend on traditional methods of observation. However, advances in technology are now making it possible to track the animals’ movements in real time and understand how they behave.
For example, by using artificial intelligence and machine learning, researchers can create models that capture patterns of animal movement and predict future data based on past observations.
Technology can also be used to identify new species of animals or plants by using computer programs called classifiers. These programs work just like human experts do; they make decisions based on data given to them as an input.
Typically, these classifiers look at images or sound recordings to learn what is a certain species and what isn’t. The machine learning algorithm was applied to the forest animal’s conservation department and the marine wildlife conservation department in order to save animals that were being intensely killed.
How AI Can Help Us Study Wildlife
Having a better understanding of wildlife can help us conserve them and protect them from poachers. Scientists heavily rely on modern technology to study animals, which is why AI is playing a huge role in this field.
AI can be used to greatly reduce the time it takes for researchers to collect data about animals. Not only that, it can also be used to pick out features or characteristics that can help identify endangered species or track animal behavior through video recordings.
The technology helps in identifying if animals are sick or pregnant and so on. AI can also be used in enabling scientists to access data faster than ever before, especially with regard to large research projects where budgets are at stake.
How AI Can Help Us Protect Wildlife
AI can also be used to protect animals from humans who would go against their best interests. For instance, AI can be used by wildlife management agencies to monitor poaching activity in real time and assess the casualties caused.
One of the best ways of countering poaching is by using drones, which are capable of spotting poachers and protecting endangered animals. For wildlife management, this technology is not only cost-effective, but it also ensures that species will not be harmed in any way by humans.
There are an estimated 30,000 endangered species worldwide. Another benefit from using AI is that it increases predictive accuracy when predicting how effective a certain method is to save endangered species or monitor animal populations.
It can be used by conservationists to predict how a certain species will react to a difficult situation. By predicting how animals will react, conservationists can work out their best course of action to protect species and populations that are in danger.
Benefits Of AI In Wildlife Conservation
Animal species around the world are in danger of becoming extinct. Artificial intelligence is being used to help conservation efforts.
Wild animals are being monitored and protected using AI. This technology is helping to save many endangered species.
1. AI Helps In Studying Wildlife
AI can help scientists collect data more efficiently and accurately. We have already seen how AI is helping in identifying new species of animals, and what’s more important is that it can be used to study animal behavior by collecting behavioral data on animals while they are still alive.
Therefore, AI can also help scientists keep tabs on animal behavior even after death, which will massively aid in conservation efforts because the technology can provide crucial information about the behaviors of animals especially when it comes to endangered species.
2. AI Helps Identify New Species
AI can help researchers determine if a certain species was new or not. This is because AI can help analyze large amounts of data much faster than a human expert could.
It can quickly sort through thousands of images and pick out species that have not been discovered by humans yet. For example, AI has already been used to identify an undiscovered species of butterfly from one million pictures!
3. AI Can Study Animal Behaviour
Another study in the same field offered by Intechopen examines the possibility of great precision in monitoring and tracing animals using GPS technology.
AI can help scientists collect behavioral data on animals that are no longer present, which will help them better understand the behavior of a particular animal.
By using recordings or images of the animal in different situations, researchers will be able to determine if it is sick or when it is likely to give birth etc.
4. AI Can Help Reproduce Data, Save Money
AI can help researchers reproduce data that was collected about animals decades ago. This is because it can measure and compare data in many different ways that a human expert couldn’t imagine, so it can save researchers from having to go out and collect the same kind of data again.
For example, AI could easily be used for analyzing images or sound analysis on multiple species at once which will make it much easier for scientists to determine how an animal behaves in different situations.
5. AI Can Help Fight Against Poaching
With the help of AI, scientists have become able to protect wildlife better. For example, it might be possible to use AI to identify people who are involved in illegally poaching or trading animals. This will help us make sure that we are safe from poachers and can monitor them in order to prevent further cases of poaching.
6. AI Can Help Identify New Species Of Animals
The Species Classification API Demo from Microsoft employs a machine learning model to identify over 5000 animal and plant species.
AI can also be used to identify a new species of animal that was previously unknown through studying their characteristics with the help of thousands or millions of images or recordings from different places and times. For example, it has been used to identify an undiscovered species of butterfly based on a million images!
7. AI Can Help Predict Animal Behavior
AI can help scientists better predict how an animal will behave in certain situations. This can help them determine what caused an animal to behave that way and make necessary changes.
For example, AI can help identify important environmental factors for animals to survive and it can also be used to detect the presence of a disease or parasite that affects the behavior of an animal.
8. AI Can Help Protect Wildlife From Poaching
The hill noted that organisations such as Smart Parks and Sensing Clues are promoting the use of networked sensors to improve protected area monitoring and administration.
AI is already being used by wildlife conservationists to track down poachers who are killing endangered species for various reasons such as ivory poaching, illegal animal trade and so on.
By using AI, developers are able to create an app that can be used to identify suspected poachers as well as their vehicles. In the future we should expect to see a lot more applications being developed for this purpose, which will help us protect endangered species from poachers and help support wildlife conservation.
9. AI Can Help Track Wildlife In Remote Areas
AI can be used to study animals in remote areas that are hard for researchers to reach. For example, animals like elephants live in inaccessible places and tracking them requires days or even weeks of research, which can put researchers at risk too.
By using AI, researchers can now access a lot of data that was previously unavailable due to these limitations. This data can also be used to detect animals in remote locations that are inaccessible by foot or even drones.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of wild animals wandering into urban areas. This has led to a need for a way to identify individual animals and track their movements.
Computer vision technology is being used by forest rangers to do just that. By using this technology, they are able to quickly and easily identify individual animals and track their movements. This information is then used to help manage such waste materials that these animals produce.
Challenges Of AI In Wildlife Conservation
Animal detection and animal counting is a vital part of wildlife conservation efforts. Wildlife conservation authorities need to know how many animals are in an area in order to properly manage the population and protect the natural environment.
AI-enabled animal detection can help authorities more accurately and efficiently count animals, leading to better conservation outcomes.
1. Algorithms Still Cannot Identify Species
Wildbook, a non-profit organisation based in the United States, is using AI algorithms to digitally tag individual animals, much like human fingerprints. The algorithms analyze public streams of photos and videos to identify individual animals in an instant.
AI has been used to identify species but this is still not perfect. For example, it has identified a newly discovered butterfly which was found in Papua New Guinea.
This is because the algorithm uses pixels as a type of visual data and a method that can be applied for instance on images to find out if there is any new species. Nonetheless, AI is still not capable of identifying anything beyond a certain species so it cannot accurately tell us if something is new or not.
To be more precise, AI can only indicate similarities between pictures or videos but cannot do the same when it comes to actually identifying any kind of animal.
2. Lack Of Ethics In AI Development
The technology is still in its developmental phase so it can be seen as a wild interconnecting part of the wildlife conservation domain. There are some ethical concerns about the technology developing rapidly, mainly concerning how it will affect the livelihoods of people in future.
In fact, this might lead to further disadvantages for endangered species if the technology becomes more technologically advanced and affects them directly. The question is whether we can agree that animal research is worth this kind of loss since both animals and humans could suffer from it.
3. The Potential For Privacy Issues
Since AI is used to develop applications that can collect data on animals, the question of privacy arises. Whenever a person is tracked they have a right to be protected by their privacy and by their rights to be left alone.
There are also people who ask if they should give permission before they allow a technology to run on them. It might raise questions regarding how far the state should go in collecting data and how long it should be kept.
4. Validating Animal Research When It Isn’t Necessary
One of the problems that scientists face when using AI in animal research is validating their studies when it isn’t necessary. It is a little bit questionable if the data collected is still useful and will actually lead to animal conservation and wildlife being protected by it.
The validity of this research can also be questioned since it might not be for the purposes stated at first. This might also lead to false information being given to the public about biodiversity and how important it is for us.
5. Lack Of Research On The Impact Of AI On Animals
Another problem that scientists face when using AI in animal research is that they do not know what kind of impact artificial intelligence will have on animals.
This could lead to dangerous consequences as well as cause any number of problems for them, or even put them at risk for extinction due to their research being incomplete or inaccurate. This is because it is difficult to predict what will happen in the future when using AI to develop new species and technology.
6. Impact On Animal Rights
It is important to consider the impact that AI could have on animal rights, since they are seen as human rights by many. This has lead to many people calling for a ban on technology that affects animals and how far it should go in determining its limits.
This could not only endanger animals but also affect the livelihoods of communities who depend on them for a living. For example, there are people who practice hunting for food as well as for other purposes. If AI can provide them with better ways to hunt or process resources then it might destroy their livelihoods also.
The Future Of AI In Wildlife Conservation
AI can give wildlife researchers the ability to explore areas that were previously not possible to cover due to resource constraints, like in remote areas. This will be especially useful when it comes to tracking animals that are hard to track like elephants or rhinos.
In the past, it was hard for scientists to access large amounts of data such as GPS records, images and sound recordings because resources were scarce. However, AI is making it possible for them to collect and analyze this information at a much cheaper cost.
With AI, they can even determine if animals are sick or pregnant without having a doctor examine them.
Final Note
Despite these challenges, AI is a great tool to use in animal research. The technology has certainly come far since it was first invented.
As mentioned earlier, being able to collect and analyze large amounts of data on animals is already helping scientists greatly in their work.
With the help of AI, we will see a lot more progress being made in animal research because it will make it easier for them to access large amounts of information so they can find better ways to protect endangered animals and wildlife from extinction.
Last Updated on September 26, 2023 by Parina Parmar
