To Reduce Wildlife Deaths Caused by Fences, Scientists Are Turning to AI

Via Science.org, a look at how software trained to identify fences from aerial images could help wildlife managers prevent pronghorn from getting stuck and starving: As many as 1 million kilometers of fence may crisscross the western United States, enough to stretch to the Moon and back. Erected over the past century, largely to contain

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Sea Lions Equipped with Cameras Help Uncover Uncharted Ocean Habitats

Via Terra Daily, a look at how tech-enabled sea lions are helping uncover ocean habitats: The world’s seabeds remain largely unexplored, with current knowledge being inconsistent. Utilizing remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) to study seabeds can be costly, dependent on weather conditions, and challenging in deep, remote areas.To

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Artificial Intelligence Could Soon Turn Anyone into an Expert Tracker

Via Hakai Magazine, a look at how scientists are working on a machine learning tool that could, one day, identify individual animals from photographs of their footprints: Some wild animals are relatively easy to study. Certain penguin populations, for instance, are so unaccustomed to large predators that they barely fear humans and will often

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The ‘Internet of Animals’ Could Transform What We Know About Wildlife

Courtesy of Yale e360, a look at how scientists studying migrations, endangered species, and global change are placing tracking devices on thousands of animals that will be monitored by a satellite-based system set to launch next year. If successful, the project could help illuminate the planet’s nonhuman worlds. Field biologists tend to be a

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In Brazil, Tech Is A New Frontier In Battles Over Indigenous Lands

Via Dialogue Earth, a look at how – as illegal miners seek to profit from the Amazon, and NGOs to protect it – high-speed internet, AI and even Flight Simulator are emerging as tools for good and bad: A dirt runway near an illegal mining site in the Yanomami Indigenous territory, Roraima state, Brazil. In

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Diving With Penguins: Tech Gives Ocean Scientists a Bird’s-Eye View of Foraging in Antarctic Waters

Via The Conversation, a look at how technology is being used to give ocean scientists a bird’s-eye view of foraging in Antarctic waters: Chinstrap penguins are members of Antarctica’s brush-tailed group of penguins. They’re easily identified by the feature that gives them their name – a black strap that runs from ear to ear below the

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ABOUT
Networked Nature
New technical innovations such as location-tracking devices, GPS and satellite communications, remote sensors, laser-imaging technologies, light detection and ranging” (LIDAR) sensing, high-resolution satellite imagery, digital mapping, advanced statistical analytical software and even biotechnology and synthetic biology are revolutionizing conservation in two key ways: first, by revealing the state of our world in unprecedented detail; and, second, by making available more data to more people in more places. The mission of this blog is to track these technical innovations that may give conservation the chance – for the first time – to keep up with, and even get ahead of, the planet’s most intractable environmental challenges. It will also examine the unintended consequences and moral hazards that the use of these new tools may cause.Read More