Could AI text alerts help save snow leopards from extinction?

Snow lions cannot snarl. But when we step towards one of these fierce animals, she’s purring.

” Lovely,” as she’s called, was orphaned and rescued 12 years ago in Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan.

After years of relying on employees to serve her, she does not know how to chase in the wild- and cannot be set completely.

” If we release her, she would just go strike a farmer’s animal and get killed,” Lovely’s caregiver, Tehzeeb Hussain, tells us.

Despite laws protecting them, between 221 to 450 snow leopards are killed each year, the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF ) says, which has contributed to a 20 % decline in the global population over the past two decades.

More than half of these deaths were in retribution for the loss of cattle.

Today, scientists estimate that only 4,000 to 6,000 winter tigers are left in the wild- with about 300 of these in Pakistan, the third-largest population in the world.

To try and reverse these worrying trends, the WWF- with the help of Pakistan’s Lahore University of Management Sciences ( LUMS )- has developed cameras powered by artificial intelligence ( AI ).

Their goal is to find a winter leopard’s existence and caution villagers via text message to shift their livestock to safety.

Tall, with a solar panel mounted on top, the cameras are positioned high among barren and rugged mountains at nearly 3,000m (9,843ft ).

” Snow leopard place,” says Asif Iqbal, a naturalist from WWF Pakistan. He walks us a few more ways and positions to songs on the ground:” These are very fresh. “

Asif hopes this means the lens has recorded more proof that the Artificial software- which allows it to distinguish between humans, different animals and winter leopards- is working.

The WWF is currently testing 10 devices, deployed across three villages in Gilgit-Baltistan. It has taken three years to teach the AI model to identify these categories with impressive- if no ideal- accuracy.

When we’re back down the mountain, Asif pulls up his pc and shows me a screen. There I am, in a series of GIFs. It effectively detects I’m a man. But as we scroll down the list, I come up suddenly, and this day I’m listed as both a man and an dog. I’m wearing a heavy white fur, but I forgive the program.

Finally, Asif shows me the cash picture. It’s a frost lion, recorded a few nights before, in night-vision. He pulls up another one from the year before. It’s a winter tiger raising its neck against a local rock. ” It’s a family leopard, looks like she’s marking her country,” Asif says.

Setting up the devices in rough, high-altitude places took a lot of trial and error. The WWF went through several types of chargers until it found one that could survive the harsh winters. A certain coloring was chosen to avoid reflecting light as pets pass by.

If the mobile support fails in the hills, the system continues recording and capturing data directly. But the staff has had to recognize there are some problems they just cannot solve.

While the camera lens is protected by a silver field, they’ve had to remove solar panel damaged by landslides.

It is not just the technologies that has caused issues. Getting the regional society’s buy-in has also been a problem. At first, some were wary and doubted whether the project may help them or the snow leopards.

” We noticed some of the lines had been cut,” Asif says. ” Citizens had thrown blankets over the devices. “

The group also had to be conscious of the local lifestyle and the reliance on women’s protection. Monitors had to be moved because ladies were walking by very often.

Some villages also have yet to signal acceptance and private types, which means the technology may be rolled out in their neighborhood just yet. The WWF wants a conditional promise that native farmers did not give poachers exposure to the film.

Sitara lost all six of her animals in January. She says she had taken them to eat on area above her house but that a snow leopard attacked them.

” It was three to four years of difficult work raising those creatures, and it all ended in one time,” she says.

The loss of her employment left her sick for several times. When asked if she is hopeful the Artificial cameras may help in the future, she replies:” My mobile hardly gets any support during the day, how is a word help? “

At a gathering of village elders, leaders of the Khyber village explain how attitudes have changed over the years, and that a growing proportion of their village understands the importance of snow leopards and their impact on the ecosystem.

According to the WWF, snow leopards hunt ibex and blue sheep, which stops these animals from overgrazing and helps to preserve grasslands so villagers can feed their livestock.

But not all are convinced. One local farmer questions the benefits of the animals.

” We used to have 40 to 50 sheep, now we’ve only got four or five, and the reason is the threat from snow leopards and from ibex eating the grass,” he says.

Climate change also has a part to play in why some feel threatened by snow leopards. Scientists say warming temperatures have led villagers to move their crops and livestock to higher areas in the mountains, encroaching on snow leopards ‘ own habitat, making livestock more of a target.

Whether the villagers are convinced by the conservation message or not, the WWF tells us legal penalties have served as a strong deterrent in recent years. Three men were jailed in 2020 after killing a snow leopard in Hoper valley, about a two-hour drive from Khyber. One of them had posted photos of himself with the dead animal on social media.

While those involved in the camera project are hopeful their AI devices can have an impact, they know they cannot be the sole solution.

In September, they are going to start trialling smells, sounds and lights at the camera sites to try to deter snow leopards from moving onto nearby villages, putting themselves and livestock in jeopardy.

Their work tracking these “ghosts of the mountains” is not over yet.