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For the last 10,000 years, Earth has been in the midst of yet another extinction event that is rapidly removing animals from our planet.
Scientists define a mass extinction as around three-quarters of all species dying out over a short geological time, which is anything less than 2.8 million years, according to The Conversation. Right now, humans find themselves at the beginning of the latest mass extinction, which is moving much faster than any of the others. Since 1970, the populations of vertebrate species have declined by an average of 68%, and currently more than 35,000 species are considered to be threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). During the 20th century alone, as many as 543
Using AI and Satellites to Count Elephants from Space labmanager.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from labmanager.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Counting elephants from space? That’s the aim of the project. To do so, earth-observation satellites and a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) known as machine learning are being deployed.
How so? Researchers are using the highest resolution satellite images currently available, which are processed and analysed automatically by a computer algorithm that has been trained with more than 1,000 images of elephants to help spot elephants in the wild. The AI involvement means the creatures can be counted even in hard-to-spot areas covered with trees or shrubs.
It’s an international project? A team from the University of Oxford, in collaboration with Dr Olga Isupova of the University of Bath and Dr. Tiejun Wang, of the University of Twente, are leading the effort, saying the work is “vital” to ensure the survival of the species.
A New Way to Track Endangered Wildlife Populations from Space yale.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yale.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.