Conservation – Fusion Nepal

Artificial Intelligence Australia Computer Vision Conservation Drones Endangered Species Gadgets Hardware Koalas machine learning Science TC UAVs

Koala-sensing drone helps keep tabs on drop bear numbers

sudshr47 March 2, 2019

It’s obviously important to Australians to make sure their koala population is closely tracked — but how can you do so when the suckers live in forests and climb trees all the time? With drones and AI, of course.

Bees Conservation Insects Science

The world’s largest bee has been rediscovered, and it’s HUGE

sudshr47 February 21, 2019

In January 2019, a clan of scientists and conservationists tramped through the torrid Indonesian forest in search of the Wallace’s giant bee — a species that hadn’t been spotted alive since 1981.

“Nobody had seen it since then,” said Robin Moore, a biologist and communications director for the organization Global Wildlife Conservation, which funded the expedition. “It was feared extinct.”

It wasn’t. They found a female.

The female bee — the larger sex of the species Megachile pluto — is four times the size of the typical European honeybee with a wingspan of 2.5 inches. It’s the largest known bee on the planet. “This is the holy grail of bees,” said Moore. Read more…

More about Science, Conservation, Insects, Bees, and Science

Artificial Intelligence beekeeping Bees colony collapse Conservation EPFL Gadgets GreenTech Science TC

Let’s save the bees with machine learning

sudshr47 February 1, 2019

Machine learning and all its related forms of “AI” are being used to work on just about every problem under the sun, but even so, stemming the alarming decline of the bee population still seems out of left field. In fact it’s a great application for the technology and may help both bees and beekeepers keep hives healthy.

Conservation Extinction Hawaii Science Snails

George is dead and his species likely extinct. It’s the loss of a ‘crown jewel of evolution.’

sudshr47 January 8, 2019

A one-inch Hawaiian snail is dead, and his species is likely gone forever.

The New Year’s Day death of the small, 14-year-old snail, named George by Hawaiian scientists, is yet another blow to the native Hawaiian ecosystem, which as the most isolated group of islands on the planet contains species found nowhere else.

But overexploitation, invasive predators, and climate change are continuously knocking out the critters here. And it’s happening fast.

“We’re witnessing complete extirpations at a rate that’s pretty remarkable,” David Sischo, the snail extinction prevention program coordinator at the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, said in an interview. Read more…

More about Science, Conservation, Hawaii, Extinction, and Snails

Climate Environment Conservation Rainforest Science

Audio recorded inside rainforests reveals a rowdy symphony of nature

sudshr47 January 4, 2019

The deep rainforest is a symphony.

In the rainforests of Indonesia, New Guinea, and other wild lands, scientists strapped microphones to trees and recorded the boisterous howls, grumbles, and shrieks that echo through the woods. It’s called bioacoustics, and in a new paper published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers highlighted the value of using recorded wild sound — which you can hear below — to gauge how animals are doing in both vulnerable and protected forests.

Modern satellite images certainly give detailed images of the forest canopies, and have proven valuable in grasping the health of rainforests. But they don’t tell you what’s happening to the creatures underneath the thick canopy — many of whom are vulnerable to hunting and overexploitation. Read more…

More about Science, Rainforest, Conservation, Science, and Climate Environment

Conservation Japan Ocean Science Whales

The strangeness of Japan’s decision to start openly hunting whales

sudshr47 December 30, 2018

Each year, Japanese whalers haul hundreds of harpooned whales aboard their giant 8,145-ton vessel, the Nisshin Maru. And for decades, they’ve killed most of these whales in the open Antarctic seas, under the guise of performing scientific “research.”

But now Japan is changing course, in a curious way.

On Wednesday Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced that the nation will retreat from killing whales in the Antarctic waters. Instead, the Japanese have dropped the pretense of hunting whales for research and say they will strictly hunt whales in waters around Japan — mostly for the whales’ meat. Read more…

More about Science, Japan, Ocean, Conservation, and Whales

Animals Conservation Endangered Species Extinction Science

These are the animals that went extinct in 2018

sudshr47 December 28, 2018

With the end of 2018 comes the near-certain reality that some critters, after millions of years of existence on Earth, are gone for good.
There’s little question that humanity’s continued exploitation of wild animals and the depletion of their …

Conservation india Predators Science Tigers

A man-eating tiger is dead. And that’s good for other tigers.

sudshr47 November 10, 2018

After killing and eating more than a dozen villagers in India over the last two years, an elusive tigress was shot dead by government-hired hunters on November 2.

Killing endangered wild tigers certainly isn’t ideal, as there are only some 2,150 to 3,150 adults left in the wild, globally. But, in the unusual case that a tiger begins hunting people, it’s necessary that the tiger be killed, or if possible, relocated.

The legendary cats’ greater existence, in a human-dominated world, depends on it.

“When you have a tiger that’s killed 13 people, that really undermines the conservation effort,” John Goodrich, a tiger biologist and chief scientist at the wild cat conservation group Panthera, said in an interview. Read more…

More about India, Conservation, Tigers, Predators, and Science

biodiversity Conservation David Attenborough Europe GreenTech Media Nature Documentary Netflix Our Planet Planet Earth WWF

David Attenborough to voice Netflix’s nature conservation series, Our Planet

sudshr47 November 9, 2018

Netflix has persuaded everyone’s favorite naturalist, David Attenborough, to voice its forthcoming original nature documentary series, Our Planet, which is slated to put conservation squarely in the frame, not just offer glorious animal eye-candy. It’s a timely moment to focus on conservation with climate change posing existential threats to global biodiversity — unless humans act to […]

Climate Change Conservation Gadgets GreenTech robotics Science

Reef-rejuvenating LarvalBot spreads coral babies by the millions

sudshr47 November 1, 2018

The continuing die-off of the world’s coral reefs is a depressing reminder of the reality of climate change, but it’s also something we can actively push back on. Conservationists have a new tool to do so with LarvalBot, an underwater robot platform that may greatly accelerate efforts to re-seed old corals with healthy new polyps.

Artificial Intelligence Conservation Google Government GreenTech machine learning Science Whales

Google AI listens to 15 years of sea-bottom recordings for hidden whale songs

sudshr47 October 29, 2018

Google and a group of game cetologists have undertaken an AI-based investigation of years of undersea recordings, hoping to create a machine learning model that can spot humpback whale calls. It’s part of the company’s new “AI for social good” program that’s rather obviously positioned to counter the narrative that AI is mostly used for facial recognition and ad targeting.