How Swiss AI recognises wild animals – and helps biologists worldwide

From identifying bears in Alaska to tracking deer in the Alps, Swiss-built AI is opening new frontiers in wildlife conservation. But machines are no miracle workers: they rely on researchers who have spent a lifetime in nature. Beth Rosenberg has spent the past 20 years observing bears in remote areas of Alaska, without electricity or running water. The biologist and ecologist, who works at the Alaska Pacific University, can now recognise individual animals by the shape of their heads and muzzles, as well as by small scars or distinctive behaviours. “Some bears always fish in a certain way, or like to play with each other. If you spend enough time observing them, individual differences quickly become obvious,” she says. Now, Rosenberg is sharing her experience with an artificial intelligence (AI) model. In collaboration with researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Rosenberg helped to train an AI system on how to recognise individual bears. The ...