As an undergraduate biology student, Talia Speaker faced several hurdles in using technology in her work. Biology and ecology professors weren’t well-versed with the technical side of things, while those in the computer science and engineering departments didn’t seem to have an interest in biodiversity. “I was a struggling undergrad who was trying to analyze species in camera-trap images,” Speaker says. “There really weren’t interdisciplinary programs that I was aware of.” That situation, she says, has changed drastically over the past five years. “So many wildlife conservation projects are using technology in their work, and leveraging it in different ways and thinking about how innovation is playing a role in their organizations,” Speaker, currently a research specialist at conservation technology community WildLabs, tells Mongabay in a video interview. Much of Speaker’s work now focuses on how technology performs when applied in the context of wildlife monitoring and biodiversity conservation. A report published by WildLabs, based on research led by Speaker, looks at how scientists, academics, NGOs and conservationists are using technology in their work. The report analyzes data from a three-year period to identify trends and patterns in the field of conservation technology. Out of the 630 people who participated in surveys for the research, almost all said they used at least one technology tool in their conservation work. Close to 80% of the participants said they used more than two tools. Camera traps and remote sensing were found to be the most widely used tools. Artificial intelligence and its…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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