The jaguar (panthera onca), the great cat of America, is an important part of our country’s identity as it was considered sacred in pre-Hispanic cultures. Unfortunately, it is a threatened species; however, artificial intelligence (AI) is added to the actions to protect it.
Why is jaguar preservation crucial?
First, it is important not only for its cultural relevance and beauty; but because its presence is a “thermometer” of the state of health of the ecosystems (forests and jungles) where it lives, essential for our survival.
Likewise, the jaguar has drastically lost its habitat in Mexico due to deforestation, poaching, trafficking of young, diseases transmitted by domestic animals, and even by ranchers, who kill them to protect their livestock.
However, since 1987 its hunting was prohibited in our country and different conservation actions have been carried out; which has allowed, according to Gerardo Ceballos, from the Institute of Ecology, recover their territory and increase their population up to 20% in 2018.
According to the census of the feline carried out by several scientists from the UAM-Lerma and the Institute of Ecology of the UNAM, among others; the population increased by 800 specimens that year, reaching 4,800, which is excellent news.
Currently, there are jaguar sightings from Sonora to Chiapas; from Tamaulipas to Tabasco; as well as in the Yucatan Peninsula. And thanks to AI, today we know that the jaguar lives in the Dzilam Bravo nature reserve, in Yucatan.
How does artificial intelligence contribute to the conservation of the feline in America?
AI is capable of strengthening the conservation of biodiversity throughout the world and an example of this is the Tech4Nature Mexico project, which, since last year, has carried out exhaustive monitoring of the reserve through the installation of a network of cameras called traps and the development of algorithms to identify jaguars.
For this reason, more than 30 thousand photographs, 550 thousand audio recordings and numerous video clips of wild animals were collected, which were processed by AI platforms to identify species in the region. It was later discovered that at least five jaguars inhabit the area, according to a team of conservation experts reported on May 18.
Likewise, the team identified 119 animal species, including 88 birds, 22 mammals, 5 reptiles and 4 amphibians, of which 34 are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
Lastly, the project involves the IUCN, the Polytechnic University of Yucatán, the C Minds AI for Climate initiative, the civil organization Rainforest Connection, the Dzilam community, Yucatán authorities as well as the company Huawei, which provides a information storage platform.
Whats Next?
The team will be able to obtain more information on the species that inhabit the region, and later, together with local authorities and communities, implement actions to protect not only the jaguar, but the entire ecosystem. Congratulations!
The project seeks for the reserve to be considered an area that protects the ecosystem / Image: aiforclimate
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