AI of the tiger: Tiny camera 'protects' predator—and people
Tiger populations are on the rise in the jungles of India and Nepal and the predators are roaming ever closer to villages, sparking a race among conservationists to find ways of avoiding conflict.
They are increasingly finding solutions with artificial intelligence, a bunch of technologies designed to reason and make decisions like humans.
Experts from Clemson University in South Carolina and several NGOs published research last month on their work using AI-enabled cameras that they say could help revolutionize tiger conservation.
They placed tiny devices around enclosures in the two South Asian nations, both to protect villagers from the predators—and the predators from poachers.
According to their research, published in the BioScience journal, the camera system called TrailGuard can distinguish between tigers and other species and relay images to park rangers or villagers within seconds.
"We have to find ways for people and tigers and other wildlife to coexist," Eric Dinerstein, one of the authors of the report, told AFP.
"Technology can offer us a tremendous opportunity to achieve that goal very cheaply."
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The research claims the cameras were immediately effective, picking up a tiger just 300 meters from a village, and on another occasion identifying a team of poachers.
A tiger in a reserve in Madhya Pradesh in northern India.