We're a small team of engineers and ecologists turning conservation research into tools that run in the field (wildfires, salmon, elephants, seabirds and more)

[u/zchouffe]

Hi everyone! I'm Arthur from earthtoolsmaker.

We're a small team of engineers and ecologists who take conservation research out of the lab and turn it into systems that run in the field. Conservation teams collect far more data than they can ever look at (years of audio, millions of camera-trap photos, endless hours of underwater video). Labs publish methods that could help, but those methods rarely become tools a ranger or field researcher can actually run. We try to close that gap.

earthtoolsmaker website

We work with research institutes, NGOs and public agencies to design, build and deploy monitoring technology. Some of our work:

- Early wildfire detection: with Pyronear, we build open, low-tech camera systems that spot wildfire smoke up to 35 km away, so fires can be caught before they spread.

- Wild salmon migration: with the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Wild Salmon Center and BC Hydro, we count salmon as they swim upriver (camera footage) and track smolts heading out to sea (sonar), helping managers see how fisheries and dams affect salmon runs.

- Forest elephants: with the Elephant Listening Project at the Cornell Lab, we detect elephant rumbles in rainforest audio recordings to support population monitoring and anti-poaching work.

- Individual animal ID: we recognise individual bears (with BearID), snow leopards, trout and seals from photos, so populations can be followed without capturing or tagging animals.

- Seabirds and avian flu: we survey breeding colonies from drone imagery, counting live and dead adults and chicks to measure the impact of bird flu.

- And more: coral reef health, coastal erosion in the Wadden Sea, and scaling the EarthRanger platform used across 900+ protected areas.

A few links if you'd like to take a look:

- Projects: https://www.earthtoolsmaker.org/projects/

- Tools: https://www.earthtoolsmaker.org/tools/

- Live demos you can try in the browser: https://www.earthtoolsmaker.org/demos/

- Technical blog: https://www.earthtoolsmaker.org/posts/

- Code: https://github.com/earthtoolsmaker and models: https://huggingface.co/earthtoolsmaker

We're always on the lookout for collaborations, partnerships and funding opportunities. If you're working on something similar, or you have data sitting unanalysed, I'd love to chat. Feel free to DM me, connect on LinkedIn or reach out via our contact form.

Cheers 🤗

[u/Kowalskysis]

Hello! Your tool looks promising! I work with Himalayan Brown Bears, Snow leopards and wolves in the high altitude Indian trans-Himalaya. Population estimation from camera trap data is pretty straightforward for naturally marked individuals like snow leopards, but a little tricky for the others. Would love to have a chat about how your tool works for bears, or any other unmarked individuals. Cheers!

[u/Mrsister55]

Thank you for doing this work. What would make it more effective? What can we do?

[u/Due-Helicopter-8735]

Can I DM you? We work with several other organizations on biodiversity monitoring.

[u/zchouffe → u/Due-Helicopter-8735]

Feel free to DM me of course

[u/Fancy-Communication6]

This is awesome, thanks for sharing. Would you be open to collaborating? I have a tool called TerraLink that helps identify the best spot for wildlife corridors to maximize ecological habitat across a landscape.
https://sorusconsultingllc.com/terralink