Tiny camera ‘protects’ the predator and people with AI of the tiger
Conservationists are racing to develop solutions to prevent conflict as tiger numbers are growing in the jungles of India and Nepal and the predators are straying closer to settlements.
Artificial intelligence, a group of technologies intended to think and act like humans, is helping them to solve problems in an expanding number of cases.
Researchers utilizing AI-enabled cameras, including those from Clemson University in South Carolina and a number of NGOs, published data last month that they claim might transform tiger conservation.
Both the residents and the predators were protected by the little devices that were placed around enclosures in the two South Asian countries.
Their study, which was published in the BioScience journal, claims that the TrailGuard camera system can quickly transmit footage to park rangers or locals and can distinguish between tigers and other species.
One of the report’s authors, Eric Dinerstein, told AFP that coexistence between humans, tigers, and other animals must be achieved. We have a wonderful opportunity thanks to technology to accomplish that goal for a very small expense.
According to the research, the cameras were instantly effective, spotting a tiger barely 300 meters from a settlement and, on another occasion, spotting a group of poachers.
They claim that their technology was the first artificial intelligence camera to recognize and send a picture of a tiger, and it has virtually eliminated false alarms, which occur when traps are set off by passing boars or falling leaves.
The plan is one of many that adds an AI twist to the traditional concepts of wildlife surveillance.
Researchers in Gabon are testing an elephant warning system as they use AI to sift through camera trap photos.
Teams are testing technology in the Amazon that can identify the sounds of tractors, chainsaws, and other machines used in deforestation.
And four years ago, the American tech giant Google joined together with academics and non-profit organizations to gather millions of photographs from camera traps.
The “Wildlife Insights” project streamlines the process of sorting and classifying images of various species, saving researchers a tremendous amount of time that would otherwise be required for tedious activities.
The digital team leader at Resolve NGO, Dinerstein, and other conservationists think technology is advancing their cause.
As agreed upon by a number of states last year, their objective is to ensure that 30% of the Earth’s land and oceans be designated protected zones by 2030, with that percentage eventually rising to 50%.
The movement of animals between certain protected regions must be done securely, and those zones must be watched over.
That’s what we’re aiming towards, and an early warning system is a key component of that, he said.
The difficulty of the task is highlighted by the predicament of tigers.
As a result of the devastation of their habitats throughout Asia, their populations in India reached an all-time low of 1,411 in 2006 before progressively increasing to the current level of about 3,500.
An estimated 40,000 people lived in India at the middle of the 20th century.
TrailGuard has intriguing possibilities, according to Jonathan Palmer, head of conservation technology at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a nonprofit organization based in the United States.
Palmer, who worked with Google to develop Wildlife Insights, claimed that the more general applications of AI in conservation were still up for debate.
He said that, for the most part, research into using AI to identify species is still in its early phases.
His NGO advises having any AI-based species identifications independently verified.
Palmer added that it was still “unclear” whether AI was better used in cameras that were on the scene or later on servers or laptops.
In spite of these concerns, Dinerstein is expanding the use of TrailGuard, this time with even larger animals in mind.
He mentioned that elephants often roam outside of parks, causing a lot of conflicts.
They can also result in train wrecks, which can result in scores of fatalities each year, and they can harm crops, destabilize settlements, and even generate chaos.
“There’s an immense opportunity here to prevent that.”