Via MIT Technology Review, a look at how – after decades of frustration – machine-learning tools are unlocking a treasure trove of acoustic data for ecologists: A small songbird soars above Ithaca, New York, on a September night. He is one of 4 billion birds, a great annual river of feathered migration across North America.

Via Wired, a report on how the internet of things turned every device in your house into a smart something. Now it’s coming for nature—to track forest fires and tree health or to listen out for threatened animals. You are in a lush forest. Sunlight filters through the bright green canopy, casting dappled shadows on the

Via BBC, a look at how conservationists are turning to AI in their battle to save red squirrels: An artificial intelligence (AI) tool which has been trained to tell the difference between grey and red squirrels could be “an absolute game changer”, conservationists say. The system, called Squirrel Agent, has been trained on thousands of

Via Wired, a report on Swarovski Optik’s new AX Visio binoculars which use image-recognition algorithms and GPS data to discern the species of whatever bird you point them at. And they work anywhere in the world. Photo-Illustration: Ali Cherkis; Getty Images The Austrian company Swarovski Optik has been innovating in long-range optical instruments

Marine turtles spend almost their entire lives at sea – but little is known about the paths they take. Now, as reported by BBC, satellites are helping scientists map their movements during the “lost years”. In early June 2024, Donna Shello, an adult female leatherback turtle, was hanging out on a sandy beach along the

Via USA Today, a look at how open-source data and AI can help the world’s oceans survive a record-breaking year of heat: Approximately one in four marine life creatures live in coral reefs. Commonly mistaken for plants, corals are critical animals that provide aquatic species with the food, shelter, and breeding grounds necessary for