Data and image analysis Fusion experts use analysis software to monitor endangered wildlife

In the big data age today, talking about the concrete application of data analysis, up to the search for MH370, to explore the Dongguan-style service industry chain, even representatives of the two councils began to put forward the application of large data, data analysis is really not ubiquitous. But this time, I am afraid that most people do not think of the field-the protection of endangered wildlife.

In the past impression, the animal protection work generally is the staff carries each kind of detection instrument, lies in the grass or the shade, observes the wild animal far to speculate its survival status, but this seems has nothing to do with the information technology. So how does data analysis relate to animal protection? How do animal experts use analytical software for their work? This has to mention the two distinguished zoologist--zoe Jewell and her husband, Dr. Sky Alibhai, and the animal protection organization Wildtrack they co-founded.

Wildtrack co-founder and current chairman Zoe Jewell is describing her work experience in Zimbabwe

Many wildlife conservation organizations are active around the world, some of which are led by Governments, while others are purely private and non-profit institutions, and Wildtrack is one of the latter. Jewell and Alibhai, respectively, have a master's degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Cambridge and a Ph. D. in zoology at Oxford University, both of whom have long committed to non-invasive wildlife surveillance research and use their innovative fit, the footprint identification Technique footprint recognition technology, completed a lot of difficult work.

To understand what fit technology is, one has to talk about the experience of two zoologist. A few years ago, Jewell and Alibhai were monitoring rare animals in a national park in Zimbabwe, a southern African country. Traditionally, they need to wear special radio collars around the necks of endangered animals such as rhinos, which can monitor animals ' individual situations and send relevant data back to Wildtrack's information systems.

However, after a period of observation, Jewell and Alibhai found that the use of radio collar caused a lot of problems. Influenced by the radio signal, the fertility rate of female animals began to decline. Not only that, animals in adulthood, even when the season changes, their body size and weight will change, so the collar may become the shackles of their changes, a long time will also cause the skin damage to the neck, causing direct damage.

Wildtrack co-founder Sky Alibhai is listening to the reporter's Questions

The use of radio technology is also necessary for staff to be careful, they often risked their lives to put on the animals wear collar, and these expensive collar can only be in the open and unobstructed area to send the signal normally, trees and hills will affect the transmission of radio signals. Other collars may also be damaged or shed as the animals move, and the recycling of equipment is a major problem. Jewell and Alibhai have a headache, and their work is increasingly difficult to carry out.

The cost of traditional animal monitoring methods and direct injury to animals allowed Wildtrack to rethink ways of protecting work, so Jewell and Alibhai began turning to local hunters in Africa. To know that these hunters do not have radio and computers, they can also rely on their tracking to know the location and situation of animals. But the hunter asked, "Why do you use the radio?" Look down at the floor. "What the hunters were referring to was the footprints of the animals.

From then on, Jewell and Alibhai changed their thinking. A large number of footprints can not quickly rely on human resources for analysis and collation, they began to try to introduce data analysis methods in the work to carry out animal footprints tracking work. By chance, they contacted the JMP software. The JMP software was very simple at the time, but its uniqueness was that it had its own scripting language--jsl (JMP script Language) that did not involve too much of the original rational content as other programming languages did, even if it was unskilled. Another advantage of JMP, Jewell believes, is its powerful graphical and visualization capabilities, further enhancing the ease of use of the software, which allows animal protection staff to work without the need to learn statistical theory.

According to Alibhai introduced, Wildtrack in the initial footprint identification technology encountered a lot of difficulties. Initially, only ordinary digital cameras can be used for filming, sampling the animal footprint, and the clarity of the photos will directly affect the sampling effect. Next, they need to create a statistical model to distinguish the footprints of individual animals and to determine gender and even age. But the JMP software didn't have these features.

Wildtrack custom fit Application Initial interface, the selected animal species is Siberian tiger, in addition to the direct selection of image feature extraction, the same group of comparative data analysis, validation discriminant analysis, drawing and other processing functions

Wildtrack's office is North Carolina State in the United States and is very close to SAS software. As a result, Jewell and Alibhai the founder John Sall of SAS Software co-founder and JMP Software, and finally persuaded John Sall to introduce graphic and image analysis technology into the field of data statistical analysis, To help animal conservation groups like Wildtrack to analyze the regular differences in animal footprints. This is the origin of the animal footprint recognition technology fit.

From an IT perspective, fit application is actually a toolkit developed based on JMP software. For an animal protection organization's engineers, scientists, or any other data analyst, simply arrange the toolkit in the order and logic that you want it to work. In this way, in the on-site analysis and investigation, it can be directly invoked.

With fit footprint recognition technology, Wildtrack can now determine what kind of animal it is by analyzing a sequence of footprints, as well as the number of species, gender distribution, and age in the region, providing vital basic data for the next animal protection and investigation work, It also affects animal protection strategies in this area.

Dr. Sky Alibhai is explaining fit application analysis of the characteristics of Siberian tiger footprint image

Not long ago, it is precisely because of the achievements of the footprint recognition technology, the National Forestry Bureau Cat Research Center of the executive deputy director Jiang Gungshun Professor also began to notice the Wildtrack.

Jiang Gungshun, also a professor at the Forestry Wildlife Resources College, faces the problem of not being able to determine the range of activities, total numbers and sex ratios of wild Amur tigers in the Daxing ' anling and the Xiao Hinggan Mountains area. Professor Jiang Gungshun has tried methods such as stool detection, automatic camera detection and DNA analysis, but no breakthroughs have been made. The company led by SAS, which led to the nonprofit cooperation between the Cat Research center of the National Forestry Bureau and the Wildtrack.

By analyzing the images of the Amur tiger footprints provided by Professor Jiang Gungshun, wildtrack the key data, such as quantity and sex ratio, and provided the basis for the next Siberian tiger protection work. After that, the two sides also jointly carried out for the northeast leopard, giant Panda investigation and protection work. The strong input and support of the Chinese government has made Jewell and Alibhai feel somewhat surprised and happy, which also makes the cooperation between the two sides more smooth.

According to Alibhai, Wildtrack has been involved in the protection of many animals around the world, including black rhinos, white rhinos, cheetahs, African elephants, armadillo, polar bears, and so on, and now China's giant pandas and Amur tigers have also entered the Wildtrack protection range.

Footprint samples of wild giant pandas in the wildtrack in the image processing database

Jewell believes that these achievements can not be achieved without the support of local institutions of higher learning and government, such as Duke University of America and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, forestry and so on, together with the technical support from JMP software, make the global animal protection work in the experience, resources, technical ability has been strong support Jewell and Alibhai will continue to refine and improve fit footprint recognition technology to help more animal protection organizations like wildtrack use it for free.

For footprint recognition technology, Jewell says it is likely to be used in other areas, such as medical, forensic, military, etc. Duke University has conducted a series of related experiments, one of which is to monitor the footprints of premature babies to understand their physical condition changes and to take appropriate protective measures. Believe that this advanced and Easy-to-use fit footprint recognition technology will be able to in more industries for the benefit of mankind and society as a whole.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)