Tanya Berger-Wolf: How your nature photos can help protect wild animals | TED

Summary

In the midst of the sixth mass extinction, AI is being used to track and conserve endangered species, such as the northern white rhino and whale sharks. Wildbook, a platform powered by machine learning, analyzes millions of images to identify and monitor individual animals, aiding conservation efforts globally. By engaging citizen scientists and utilizing social media, Wildbook democratizes wildlife tracking, empowering people to help protect biodiversity. This innovative approach is transforming conservation science, providing essential data for policy decisions and giving us the tools to make a real difference in preserving the planet's species.

Takeaways

• 😀 In 2014, the last male northern white rhino, Sudan, was met, and four years later, he passed away, leaving the species effectively extinct.
• 😀 The world is currently experiencing the sixth mass extinction, a biodiversity crisis, with species disappearing at an unprecedented rate.
• 😀 The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List tracks biodiversity but reveals that the majority of species are labeled as 'data deficient,' with unknown population trends.
• 😀 There's a significant lack of data on various species, such as African elephants and polar bears, which makes conservation efforts and policy decisions difficult.
• 😀 Traditional methods of tracking wildlife, like collaring and tagging, can be dangerous to animals and aren't scalable for monitoring every species globally.
• 😀 Images, especially those from tourists and field assistants, provide an abundant source of data about wildlife that can be leveraged for conservation purposes.
• 😀 Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used to process millions of images, identify animals, and track them individually using unique markings like fingerprints, body prints, and fluke shapes.
• 😀 The Wildbook platform employs AI to identify individual animals in millions of images and track their movements, social networks, and population trends.
• 😀 Through AI, even social media images and videos can be used for conservation, allowing the public to contribute data without special training, making conservation more accessible.
• 😀 The AI-driven Wildbook platform has helped create the most accurate count of endangered species like the Grévy's zebra, with data from thousands of people across Kenya, leading to better conservation management.
• 😀 Artificial intelligence is democratizing science by connecting individual contributions to create a global view of biodiversity, helping to inform conservation policy and engage people worldwide.

Q & A

What happened to Sudan, the last male northern white rhino?

Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, passed away in 2018, leaving only two female northern white rhinos alive, making the species effectively extinct.

What is the 'sixth mass extinction'?

The sixth mass extinction refers to the ongoing loss of biodiversity at an unprecedented scale, where species are disappearing at a rate faster than natural extinction events, largely due to human activities.

What role does the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List play in biodiversity tracking?

The IUCN Red List is the official international organization that tracks the conservation status of species worldwide, providing critical data for understanding the health of biodiversity and informing conservation efforts.

Why is the conservation status of many species unknown?

Many species have an unknown conservation status because there are insufficient data on their populations, trends, and specific threats. The IUCN Red List tracks only a fraction of the world's species, and most of these species are data deficient.

How can images help in tracking wildlife?

Images are abundant and easily accessible, and they can be analyzed using artificial intelligence to extract critical information about wildlife, including identifying species, individual animals, and tracking their behavior and locations.

What is Wildbook, and how does it assist in wildlife conservation?

Wildbook is a platform that uses AI and machine learning to process millions of images, identifying individual animals based on unique physical features, such as stripes or flukes, and tracking their movements and social networks for conservation purposes.

How does Wildbook use artificial intelligence in its platform?

Wildbook employs AI algorithms and computer vision to analyze images, automatically detecting animals and recognizing individual animals by their unique markings. This data helps track populations, monitor behavior, and inform conservation decisions.

Can you explain the concept of a 'body print' in wildlife identification?

A 'body print' refers to the unique physical characteristics of an animal, such as spots, stripes, or wrinkles, that can be used to identify individual animals, similar to how human fingerprints are unique.

How does Wildbook engage people in conservation efforts?

Wildbook engages the public by encouraging them to share images and videos of wildlife on social media, which are then analyzed for scientific data. This crowdsourcing approach empowers individuals to contribute to conservation efforts, even through their vacation photos or videos.

What is the significance of the 'Great Gravy Zebra Rally'?

The Great Gravy Zebra Rally is a citizen science initiative where thousands of people, from school kids to tourists, take photos of the endangered Grevy's zebra in Kenya. These images are then analyzed by Wildbook to track the species' population, providing crucial data for conservation and management.