AI will eavesdrop on world's wildest places to track and help protect endangered wildlife
The endangered Geoffrey's spider monkeys that dangle high in the rainforest canopy are elusive and hard for scientists to track.
So biologist Jenna Lawson hid 350 audio monitors in trees across Costa Rica's lush Osa Peninsula to spy on them.
The devices recorded the sounds of the forest and surrounding countryside for a week, collecting so much data that Lawson could have spent years listening to it all.
Instead, she fed it into artificial intelligence systems trained to instantly recognize spider monkey calls and detect where the animals traveled. One of the world's largest acoustic wildlife studies when Lawson began the project in 2021, it revealed troubling findings about the health of a treasured wildlife refuge.
The devices recorded the sounds of the forest and surrounding countryside for a week, collecting so much data that Lawson could have spent years listening to it all.
Instead, she fed it into artificial intelligence systems trained to instantly recognize spider monkey calls and detect where the animals traveled. One of the world's largest acoustic wildlife studies when Lawson began the project in 2021, it revealed troubling findings about the health of a treasured wildlife refuge.
More of this AI-assisted wildlife surveillance is "urgently needed" as some 28% of all plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, according to a paper published in the academic journal Science this summer. Researchers from Dutch and Danish universities showed that machine-learning techniques can "handle huge amounts of data and uncover sound patterns, allowing for faster, cheaper, and better ecological studies" that can aid in biodiversity conservation. But many technical challenges remain.
An audio device is attached to a tree to listen for the calls of endangered spider monkeys at the private Rio Nuevo Nature Reserve on Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula on March 20, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Matt O'Brien, File
An endangered Geoffrey's spider monkey that had been rescued and living in the care of the Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary in Dominical, Costa Rica, on March 17, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Matt O'Brien, File
Biologists Jim Córdoba-Alfaro, left, and Jenna Lawson listen for the sounds of endangered Geoffrey's spider monkeys at the private Rio Nuevo Nature Reserve on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, on March 20, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Matt O'Brien, File
The view of Golfo Dulce and the Pacific Ocean is seen from a rainforest on the Osa Peninsula near Cabo Matapalo, Costa Rica, on March 20, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Matt O'Brien, File
Biodiversity scientist Jenna Lawson checks one of hundreds of audio monitors she placed to track the calls of endangered Geoffrey's spider monkeys across the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, on Monday, March 20, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/Matt O'Brien, File