The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) organisation has used AI technology to monitor wildlife in Eastern Australia as part of a research project. The team deployed camera traps with AI-recognition capabilities, which captured over 7 million images of various species, including koalas and wombats. To process the vast number of images, WWF introduced an AI-powered tool called Wildlife Insights, which can automatically identify species and filter out blank images, identifying 1300 different species. The technology has also been used in Malaysia to monitor wildlife intrusions by mammals such as elephants and tigers, and to manage smaller mammalian pests like rodents in agricultural areas. In South Africa's Ngoye Forest, researchers used drones with multispectral sensors to detect and protect an endangered cycad plant species called Encephalartos woodie. The use of AI technology has raised ethical concerns regarding the collection of sensitive data about wildlife and their habitats, as well as potential infringement on local communities' privacy.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/what-you-think/2025/01/07/using-ai-ethically-for-wildlife-conservation-aufa-ananda-rizqi-wibowo-and-hasmahzaiti-omar/162302