Placed by researchers in forests and natural areas around the world, motion-detector cameras \u2014 known as \u201ccamera traps\u201d \u2014 snap thousands of photos a day of animals rarely seen by human eyes. These unwitting selfies have provided
\n scientists an unequaled view into the homes (and habits) of wildlife.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/ciorg.imgix.net\/images\/default-source\/default-album\/ci_85865095?&auto=compress&auto=format&fit=crop?&auto=compress&auto=format&w=800\"\/)
A researcher setting up a camera trap in Udzungwa National Park. ( \u00a9\u00a0Benjamin Drummond)<\/strong><\/h6>\nThis data is critical to crafting smart policies for wildlife conservation, according to Jorge Ahumada, a scientist at Conservation International.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a downside to having all this data, he says: It\u2019s not being shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnology has made it very easy to collect this data, but we don\u2019t have access to it,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cThere are camera traps everywhere and millions of camera-trap images out there. But most of those images are sitting in
\n people\u2019s computers and databases. It\u2019s a major lost opportunity for conservation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That is all about to change, thanks to Wildlife Insights<\/a>, a cloud-based platform operated in partnership by Conservation International, the Smithsonian’s National
\n Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Wildlife Conservation Society, The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, World Wide Fund for Nature, the Zoological Society of London, Map of Life and Google and implemented by Vizzuality. The new platform will enable researchers
\n \u2014 and literally anyone else \u2014 to view, share and analyze camera-trap data and images.\u00a0<\/p>\nClose encounters<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nCamera traps have already revolutionized conservation, says Ahumada, who knows a thing or two about tracking species from his early days as a field biologist studying spider monkeys in Colombia.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone who has studied monkeys in tropical areas knows that this involves long hours of walking, encountering every possible imaginable creature except the monkeys you are studying,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One day out in the forest, he saw something he\u2019d never seen before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were two of them \u2014 they looked like small dogs, with short ears, short tails and a flattened snout,\u201d he said. \u201cThey ran off as soon as they smelled me.\u201d He returned to camp excitedly, telling colleagues what he
\n had seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody believed me,\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n
Thirty years later, Ahumada was reviewing camera trap data from a site in the Peruvian Amazon when an image caught his eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGuess what I see? These two dogs,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/ciorg.imgix.net\/images\/default-source\/default-album\/ci_78792901?&auto=compress&auto=format&fit=crop?&auto=compress&auto=format&w=800\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Two rarely-seen bush dogs are captured on camera for the first time in Yanachaga-Chemill\u00e9n National Park, Peru, by TEAM camera traps. (\u00a9 Courtesy of TEAM Network and Missouri Botanical Garden)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/h6>\nWhat Ahumada had seen three decades earlier was extremely rare.<\/p>\n
These small animals are called bush dogs (Speothos venaticus). About the size of a medium dog, they are known to hunt in small packs, and although their geographic range is very large (Panama to southern Brazil), they are rarely seen \u2014 of 700,000
\n camera-trap images taken within bush dogs\u2019 range, only 260 of them are of this species, Ahumada says.<\/p>\n
Even these relatively few documented sightings \u2014 equal to 3 in every 10,000 identified images \u2014 provide just enough data to study these animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cData is critical,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cOtherwise we are relying on anecdotes.\u201d<\/p>\n
More data, more problems<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nKnowing whether a particular species is at a particular place at a particular time \u2014 and not going back later to see if it is still there \u2014 doesn\u2019t tell you anything about what\u2019s happening to the species, Ahumada says. By tirelessly
\n monitoring patches of forest, he says, camera traps help to solve this problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But their ability to create data is only as useful as humans\u2019 ability to sift through it. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the main reasons people don\u2019t share data \u2014 it\u2019s very difficult to process it,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cYou end up with thousands of images, and you have to look through each one, manually. It\u2019s very
\n tedious.\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Furthermore, while many camera-trap projects are designed to study one or a few specific species, camera traps don\u2019t discriminate, mindlessly snapping candid shots of any critter that comes into view. Much of the data on this \u201cby-catch\u201d
\n are never shared, depriving other scientists of the opportunity to see or analyze it.<\/p>\n
Wildlife Insights offers a crucial incentive for persuading scientists to share their photos: unrivaled processing power. Working with Google, the platform has developed machine learning algorithms to automatically identify and tag species \u2014
\n even repeat images of the same animal, in some cases \u2014 far faster than any researcher can.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnalysis that used to take months now takes minutes,\u201d Ahumada said.<\/p>\n
The new platform\u2019s culture of sharing extends beyond just data: any tools and other add-ons will be shared, Ahumada says, as well as the camera-trap photos themselves, under Creative Commons licenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are some notable exceptions, however. Users will be able to place their data under embargo for a limited time if that data is being used for yet-to-be-published research. Additionally, the exact locations of commercially hunted and endangered
\n species will be obscured to prevent digitally savvy poachers from using the data for illegal purposes, which is discussed in Ahumada’s recently published research<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe next generation<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nWildlife Insights can be useful for just about anyone, Ahumada says.<\/p>\n
Indigenous communities that depend directly on wildlife \u2014 and the \u201cecosystem services\u201d that those wildlife provide, such as pest control and pollination \u2014 can monitor animals in a new way. Managers of protected areas or anti-poaching
\n programs can gauge the health of specific species. Governments can use wildlife data to inform regulations or legislation. Businesses can use the data to assure that they are responsibly managing the impacts of their activities on local environments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"ci_92267314\"\/](\"https:\/\/ciorg.imgix.net\/images\/default-source\/default-album\/ci_92267314?&auto=compress&auto=format&fit=crop?&auto=compress&auto=format&w=800\")
<\/p>\n
One of TEAM’s\u00a0camera traps in the Republic of Congo caught a photo of a chimpanzee. (Courtesy of the TEAM Network)<\/strong><\/h6>\nBut for Ahumada, the fact that the public can use Wildlife Insights is especially important.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want citizen scientists, teachers and children to use this platform,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are the future generations who will benefit from wildlife conservation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A \u2018TEAM\u2019 effort<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nThe platform is the next evolutionary phase of the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network<\/a>,
\n a partnership formerly led by Conservation International that placed camera traps throughout tropical forests. TEAM will continue to generate data, Ahumada says, that will now live on the Wildlife Insights platform.<\/p>\n\u201cTEAM used to be the largest public camera-trap database in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s a small part of something much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal is the same, he says, but the ambitions \u2014 and opportunities \u2014 are larger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate goal of this effort is to help stabilize and recover global wildlife populations,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cOnce we have it, we can use it for conservation and on a scale that is relevant \u2014 not just at the scale of a protected
\n area, but at the scale of a country or a region.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To coincide with the launch of Wildlife Insights, Google released a short documentary film<\/a> that tells the story of a camera trapper at Colombia\u2019s Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute who is using Wildlife Insights to document and preserve the biological diversity in Ca\u00f1o Cristales, the country\u2019s remote upper Amazon region. Watch the film here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n
\n people\u2019s computers and databases. It\u2019s a major lost opportunity for conservation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Wildlife Conservation Society, The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, World Wide Fund for Nature, the Zoological Society of London, Map of Life and Google and implemented by Vizzuality. The new platform will enable researchers
\n \u2014 and literally anyone else \u2014 to view, share and analyze camera-trap data and images.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Close encounters<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nCamera traps have already revolutionized conservation, says Ahumada, who knows a thing or two about tracking species from his early days as a field biologist studying spider monkeys in Colombia.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone who has studied monkeys in tropical areas knows that this involves long hours of walking, encountering every possible imaginable creature except the monkeys you are studying,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One day out in the forest, he saw something he\u2019d never seen before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were two of them \u2014 they looked like small dogs, with short ears, short tails and a flattened snout,\u201d he said. \u201cThey ran off as soon as they smelled me.\u201d He returned to camp excitedly, telling colleagues what he
\n had seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody believed me,\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n
Thirty years later, Ahumada was reviewing camera trap data from a site in the Peruvian Amazon when an image caught his eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGuess what I see? These two dogs,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Two rarely-seen bush dogs are captured on camera for the first time in Yanachaga-Chemill\u00e9n National Park, Peru, by TEAM camera traps. (\u00a9 Courtesy of TEAM Network and Missouri Botanical Garden)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/h6>\nWhat Ahumada had seen three decades earlier was extremely rare.<\/p>\n
These small animals are called bush dogs (Speothos venaticus). About the size of a medium dog, they are known to hunt in small packs, and although their geographic range is very large (Panama to southern Brazil), they are rarely seen \u2014 of 700,000
\n camera-trap images taken within bush dogs\u2019 range, only 260 of them are of this species, Ahumada says.<\/p>\n
Even these relatively few documented sightings \u2014 equal to 3 in every 10,000 identified images \u2014 provide just enough data to study these animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cData is critical,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cOtherwise we are relying on anecdotes.\u201d<\/p>\n
More data, more problems<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nKnowing whether a particular species is at a particular place at a particular time \u2014 and not going back later to see if it is still there \u2014 doesn\u2019t tell you anything about what\u2019s happening to the species, Ahumada says. By tirelessly
\n monitoring patches of forest, he says, camera traps help to solve this problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But their ability to create data is only as useful as humans\u2019 ability to sift through it. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the main reasons people don\u2019t share data \u2014 it\u2019s very difficult to process it,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cYou end up with thousands of images, and you have to look through each one, manually. It\u2019s very
\n tedious.\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Furthermore, while many camera-trap projects are designed to study one or a few specific species, camera traps don\u2019t discriminate, mindlessly snapping candid shots of any critter that comes into view. Much of the data on this \u201cby-catch\u201d
\n are never shared, depriving other scientists of the opportunity to see or analyze it.<\/p>\n
Wildlife Insights offers a crucial incentive for persuading scientists to share their photos: unrivaled processing power. Working with Google, the platform has developed machine learning algorithms to automatically identify and tag species \u2014
\n even repeat images of the same animal, in some cases \u2014 far faster than any researcher can.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnalysis that used to take months now takes minutes,\u201d Ahumada said.<\/p>\n
The new platform\u2019s culture of sharing extends beyond just data: any tools and other add-ons will be shared, Ahumada says, as well as the camera-trap photos themselves, under Creative Commons licenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are some notable exceptions, however. Users will be able to place their data under embargo for a limited time if that data is being used for yet-to-be-published research. Additionally, the exact locations of commercially hunted and endangered
\n species will be obscured to prevent digitally savvy poachers from using the data for illegal purposes, which is discussed in Ahumada’s recently published research<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe next generation<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nWildlife Insights can be useful for just about anyone, Ahumada says.<\/p>\n
Indigenous communities that depend directly on wildlife \u2014 and the \u201cecosystem services\u201d that those wildlife provide, such as pest control and pollination \u2014 can monitor animals in a new way. Managers of protected areas or anti-poaching
\n programs can gauge the health of specific species. Governments can use wildlife data to inform regulations or legislation. Businesses can use the data to assure that they are responsibly managing the impacts of their activities on local environments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of TEAM’s\u00a0camera traps in the Republic of Congo caught a photo of a chimpanzee. (Courtesy of the TEAM Network)<\/strong><\/h6>\nBut for Ahumada, the fact that the public can use Wildlife Insights is especially important.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want citizen scientists, teachers and children to use this platform,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are the future generations who will benefit from wildlife conservation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A \u2018TEAM\u2019 effort<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nThe platform is the next evolutionary phase of the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network<\/a>,
\n a partnership formerly led by Conservation International that placed camera traps throughout tropical forests. TEAM will continue to generate data, Ahumada says, that will now live on the Wildlife Insights platform.<\/p>\n\u201cTEAM used to be the largest public camera-trap database in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s a small part of something much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal is the same, he says, but the ambitions \u2014 and opportunities \u2014 are larger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate goal of this effort is to help stabilize and recover global wildlife populations,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cOnce we have it, we can use it for conservation and on a scale that is relevant \u2014 not just at the scale of a protected
\n area, but at the scale of a country or a region.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To coincide with the launch of Wildlife Insights, Google released a short documentary film<\/a> that tells the story of a camera trapper at Colombia\u2019s Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute who is using Wildlife Insights to document and preserve the biological diversity in Ca\u00f1o Cristales, the country\u2019s remote upper Amazon region. Watch the film here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n
\n had seen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nWhat Ahumada had seen three decades earlier was extremely rare.<\/p>\n
These small animals are called bush dogs (Speothos venaticus). About the size of a medium dog, they are known to hunt in small packs, and although their geographic range is very large (Panama to southern Brazil), they are rarely seen \u2014 of 700,000
\n camera-trap images taken within bush dogs\u2019 range, only 260 of them are of this species, Ahumada says.<\/p>\n
Even these relatively few documented sightings \u2014 equal to 3 in every 10,000 identified images \u2014 provide just enough data to study these animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cData is critical,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cOtherwise we are relying on anecdotes.\u201d<\/p>\n
More data, more problems<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nKnowing whether a particular species is at a particular place at a particular time \u2014 and not going back later to see if it is still there \u2014 doesn\u2019t tell you anything about what\u2019s happening to the species, Ahumada says. By tirelessly
\n monitoring patches of forest, he says, camera traps help to solve this problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But their ability to create data is only as useful as humans\u2019 ability to sift through it. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the main reasons people don\u2019t share data \u2014 it\u2019s very difficult to process it,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cYou end up with thousands of images, and you have to look through each one, manually. It\u2019s very
\n tedious.\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Furthermore, while many camera-trap projects are designed to study one or a few specific species, camera traps don\u2019t discriminate, mindlessly snapping candid shots of any critter that comes into view. Much of the data on this \u201cby-catch\u201d
\n are never shared, depriving other scientists of the opportunity to see or analyze it.<\/p>\n
Wildlife Insights offers a crucial incentive for persuading scientists to share their photos: unrivaled processing power. Working with Google, the platform has developed machine learning algorithms to automatically identify and tag species \u2014
\n even repeat images of the same animal, in some cases \u2014 far faster than any researcher can.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnalysis that used to take months now takes minutes,\u201d Ahumada said.<\/p>\n
The new platform\u2019s culture of sharing extends beyond just data: any tools and other add-ons will be shared, Ahumada says, as well as the camera-trap photos themselves, under Creative Commons licenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are some notable exceptions, however. Users will be able to place their data under embargo for a limited time if that data is being used for yet-to-be-published research. Additionally, the exact locations of commercially hunted and endangered
\n species will be obscured to prevent digitally savvy poachers from using the data for illegal purposes, which is discussed in Ahumada’s recently published research<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe next generation<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nWildlife Insights can be useful for just about anyone, Ahumada says.<\/p>\n
Indigenous communities that depend directly on wildlife \u2014 and the \u201cecosystem services\u201d that those wildlife provide, such as pest control and pollination \u2014 can monitor animals in a new way. Managers of protected areas or anti-poaching
\n programs can gauge the health of specific species. Governments can use wildlife data to inform regulations or legislation. Businesses can use the data to assure that they are responsibly managing the impacts of their activities on local environments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of TEAM’s\u00a0camera traps in the Republic of Congo caught a photo of a chimpanzee. (Courtesy of the TEAM Network)<\/strong><\/h6>\nBut for Ahumada, the fact that the public can use Wildlife Insights is especially important.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want citizen scientists, teachers and children to use this platform,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are the future generations who will benefit from wildlife conservation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A \u2018TEAM\u2019 effort<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nThe platform is the next evolutionary phase of the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network<\/a>,
\n a partnership formerly led by Conservation International that placed camera traps throughout tropical forests. TEAM will continue to generate data, Ahumada says, that will now live on the Wildlife Insights platform.<\/p>\n\u201cTEAM used to be the largest public camera-trap database in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s a small part of something much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal is the same, he says, but the ambitions \u2014 and opportunities \u2014 are larger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate goal of this effort is to help stabilize and recover global wildlife populations,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cOnce we have it, we can use it for conservation and on a scale that is relevant \u2014 not just at the scale of a protected
\n area, but at the scale of a country or a region.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To coincide with the launch of Wildlife Insights, Google released a short documentary film<\/a> that tells the story of a camera trapper at Colombia\u2019s Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute who is using Wildlife Insights to document and preserve the biological diversity in Ca\u00f1o Cristales, the country\u2019s remote upper Amazon region. Watch the film here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n
\n monitoring patches of forest, he says, camera traps help to solve this problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n tedious.\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n are never shared, depriving other scientists of the opportunity to see or analyze it.<\/p>\n
\n even repeat images of the same animal, in some cases \u2014 far faster than any researcher can.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n species will be obscured to prevent digitally savvy poachers from using the data for illegal purposes, which is discussed in Ahumada’s recently published research<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The next generation<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nWildlife Insights can be useful for just about anyone, Ahumada says.<\/p>\n
Indigenous communities that depend directly on wildlife \u2014 and the \u201cecosystem services\u201d that those wildlife provide, such as pest control and pollination \u2014 can monitor animals in a new way. Managers of protected areas or anti-poaching
\n programs can gauge the health of specific species. Governments can use wildlife data to inform regulations or legislation. Businesses can use the data to assure that they are responsibly managing the impacts of their activities on local environments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of TEAM’s\u00a0camera traps in the Republic of Congo caught a photo of a chimpanzee. (Courtesy of the TEAM Network)<\/strong><\/h6>\nBut for Ahumada, the fact that the public can use Wildlife Insights is especially important.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want citizen scientists, teachers and children to use this platform,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are the future generations who will benefit from wildlife conservation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A \u2018TEAM\u2019 effort<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nThe platform is the next evolutionary phase of the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network<\/a>,
\n a partnership formerly led by Conservation International that placed camera traps throughout tropical forests. TEAM will continue to generate data, Ahumada says, that will now live on the Wildlife Insights platform.<\/p>\n\u201cTEAM used to be the largest public camera-trap database in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s a small part of something much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal is the same, he says, but the ambitions \u2014 and opportunities \u2014 are larger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate goal of this effort is to help stabilize and recover global wildlife populations,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cOnce we have it, we can use it for conservation and on a scale that is relevant \u2014 not just at the scale of a protected
\n area, but at the scale of a country or a region.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To coincide with the launch of Wildlife Insights, Google released a short documentary film<\/a> that tells the story of a camera trapper at Colombia\u2019s Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute who is using Wildlife Insights to document and preserve the biological diversity in Ca\u00f1o Cristales, the country\u2019s remote upper Amazon region. Watch the film here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n
\n programs can gauge the health of specific species. Governments can use wildlife data to inform regulations or legislation. Businesses can use the data to assure that they are responsibly managing the impacts of their activities on local environments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nBut for Ahumada, the fact that the public can use Wildlife Insights is especially important.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want citizen scientists, teachers and children to use this platform,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are the future generations who will benefit from wildlife conservation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A \u2018TEAM\u2019 effort<\/strong>
<\/h3>\nThe platform is the next evolutionary phase of the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network<\/a>,
\n a partnership formerly led by Conservation International that placed camera traps throughout tropical forests. TEAM will continue to generate data, Ahumada says, that will now live on the Wildlife Insights platform.<\/p>\n\u201cTEAM used to be the largest public camera-trap database in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s a small part of something much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal is the same, he says, but the ambitions \u2014 and opportunities \u2014 are larger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate goal of this effort is to help stabilize and recover global wildlife populations,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cOnce we have it, we can use it for conservation and on a scale that is relevant \u2014 not just at the scale of a protected
\n area, but at the scale of a country or a region.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To coincide with the launch of Wildlife Insights, Google released a short documentary film<\/a> that tells the story of a camera trapper at Colombia\u2019s Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute who is using Wildlife Insights to document and preserve the biological diversity in Ca\u00f1o Cristales, the country\u2019s remote upper Amazon region. Watch the film here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n
\n a partnership formerly led by Conservation International that placed camera traps throughout tropical forests. TEAM will continue to generate data, Ahumada says, that will now live on the Wildlife Insights platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cTEAM used to be the largest public camera-trap database in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s a small part of something much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal is the same, he says, but the ambitions \u2014 and opportunities \u2014 are larger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate goal of this effort is to help stabilize and recover global wildlife populations,\u201d Ahumada said. \u201cOnce we have it, we can use it for conservation and on a scale that is relevant \u2014 not just at the scale of a protected
\n area, but at the scale of a country or a region.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To coincide with the launch of Wildlife Insights, Google released a short documentary film<\/a> that tells the story of a camera trapper at Colombia\u2019s Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute who is using Wildlife Insights to document and preserve the biological diversity in Ca\u00f1o Cristales, the country\u2019s remote upper Amazon region. Watch the film here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n