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In parts of India and Africa, poaching remains the greatest extinction threat to elephants and big cats, even in protected areas. TrailGuard AI, a system created by Resolve, a US-based environmental organization, employs tiny cameras, powered with tech from Intel, to monitor endangered species and spot poachers. The system uses either cell or long range radio signals to transmit the images to authorities’ phones in as little as 30 seconds. TrailGuard’s custom-made AI models can be trained to detect not just humans but any species of interest, from tigers to hyenas. The tech resulted in the arrests of more than 30 poachers during a test phase in East Africa, and large-scale testing is currently underway in tiger-dense central India.
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