Taranaki conservation groups tap AI to boost wildlife monitoring and pest control

In East Taranaki, the 800 Trust is restoring roughly 1,600 hectares of former farmland and forest and has created Hark, an edge-computing acoustic sensor that analyses bird calls, pest noises and even chainsaw sounds, instantly notifying a phone when something is detected. Project lead Miranda Wells says the system lets landowners, iwi and hapū act quickly, for example by chasing a possum sighting or timing pest control for a rare bird.

Meanwhile, Wildlife.ai is building Wildlife Watcher, an AI-powered camera that can identify and tally small mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and is also developing Spyfish Aotearoa to speed up analysis of underwater footage. Both groups were recently selected as two of only 16 Asia-Pacific entrants in Google DeepMind’s AI for the Planet Accelerator, giving them access to expert guidance and the chance to scale their technologies worldwide.

Wells traveled to Singapore for a week-long boot camp with DeepMind staff and expects further progress before returning to Asia in December. Victor Anton of Wildlife.ai highlighted the selection as evidence of Taranaki’s leading role in conservation innovation.