Nature and technology are typically considered as opposed around the world; nevertheless, Singapore and other countries are now leveraging the ever-expanding field of artificial intelligence (AI) to conserve nature. The Fin Finder app employs AI that has been taught to identify restricted fin types. Using the programme, inspectors armed with a simple smartphone may instantly identify contraband.
Singapore just launched the Fin Finder app to combat illegal shark and ray trading. Over the years, there has been an increasing awareness of the need for shark and ray conservation. Despite this, over 100 million sharks are killed each year, many of which are murdered to meet the demands of the shark fin trade.
Singapore is a signatory to a global treaty that prohibits the trading of some endangered sharks and rays, but enforcement is difficult because it is hard to verify if dried fins and rays are from the restricted species.
Singapore has a diverse ecosystem. The Nature Society Singapore’s (NSS) Singapore Nature Sightings project demonstrated this by enlisting island residents to upload and share their wildlife sightings using the iNaturalist app. The app’s AI capabilities and the society’s expert network will then identify the spotted flora and fauna.
From April to June 2020, a total of 3,935 observations on 987 different species of flora and wildlife were submitted, with plants (30%), birds (30%), and insects (30%) accounting for most sightings (10%). Fungi, reptiles, mammals, arachnids, amphibians, and other fauna made up the remaining 30%.
Whales, on the other hand, despite their size, may be elusive and difficult to track. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Fisheries (NOAA) has been capturing the singing of the world’s largest mammals to locate the marine species using peculiar acoustics.
NOAA collaborated with a cloud firm in 2018 to develop an AI model that can distinguish songs from humpbacks. Over 170,000 hours of underwater audio recordings were analysed by computers, a data treasure that would take a person over 19 years to listen to even if they worked 24 hours a day. Researchers were able to spot whale behaviour in a previously undocumented part of the ocean thanks to the breakthrough.
Similarly, in Zambia, a Connected Conservation Initiative was built to detect poachers. Zambia is home to the 22,400-square-kilometre Kafue National Park, which is said to be a wildlife paradise. However, the park’s vastness makes it simple for poachers to slip in and out and avoid park officials. Illegal fishing is also a concern in the lake next to the park.
The Connected Conservation Initiative monitors the park using infrared thermal cameras, and AI is used to automatically detect boats entering the park’s seas to catch illegal fishing activity. This significantly reduces the number of rangers required to watch the cameras, enhancing lake protection.
Moreover, the track water loss – MapBiomas was created in Brazil. This nation has lost more than 15% of its surface water since the 1990s, destroying the natural homes of many animals. The scale of the disaster was revealed because of MapBiomas’ use of AI, which was smart enough to discriminate between natural and man-made water bodies, to analyse over 150,000 satellite pictures from 1985 to 2020. The study demonstrated how water fluctuates around the country over time, emphasising the gravity of the situation.
It is critical to preserve the earth’s biodiversity to keep the entire ecosystem in balance. Hence, the complete integration of AI & ML-based solutions in animal conservation can aid efforts to preserve the earth’s biodiversity.