African conservationists hope artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cameras could help protect endangered species, such as forest and savannah elephants.
‘We urgently need to end poaching and ensure that adequate habitat is preserved for both forest and savannah elephants,’ said Dr. Bruno Oberle, director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), discussing potential new technology.
The cameras, co-developed by Dutch tech start-up Hack the Planet and British scientists from Stirling University, will be able to detect different animal and human species in real time and provide real-time alerts to local villages and rangers. Stirling wrote in a press release. publication.
A pilot test of the technology, which works with satellites and a range of networks including Wi-Fi, long-range radio and cellular coverage, instantly tagged images and sent out help-call alerts.
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Elephants graze in Loango Park on March 15, 2022. (Steeve Jordan/AFP via Getty Images)
The cameras were also able to deter elephants from wandering into a village in search of food, preventing a potential conflict from occurring.
“Real-time data from smart cameras and other sensors could revolutionize how we monitor and protect the world’s most threatened ecosystems,” said Dr. Robin Whytock, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Stirling, of the study. “Progress made in this study shows that real-time data could be used to make better decisions during critical situations.”
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The pilot program involved five camera systems that took over 800 photos in 72 days, of which only 217 were of elephants. The researchers determined that the AI system achieved 82 percent accuracy in recognizing elephants and had an average alert time of seven minutes.
The system will also be able to help catch poachers and ensure the safety of endangered animals. The researchers tested the system in Gabon, which is home to 60-70 percent of Africa’s forest elephants, some 95,000 in total, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
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Elephants graze in Loango Park on March 15, 2022. (Steeve Jordan/AFP via Getty Images)
The WCS referred to a 2019 study that advocated protecting elephants as a means to improve the planet’s ability to fight climate change, as researchers determined that elephant foraging removed smaller trees and promoted the growth of bigger trees that could store more carbon.
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But the elephants have entered the IUCN’s “red list” of threatened species, making them “critically endangered” and possibly extinct in some areas previously identified as their natural habitat.
The population continues to decline due to deforestation and ivory poaching, with ivory sales at about $3,300 per pound in an industry worth about $23 billion annually, according to Wild Aid.
