![\"Scientists](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1-giraffe-data-ai.jpg\")
<\/a>Scientists have deployed artificial intelligence models to identify and re-identify endangered giraffes using spot patterns on their bodies. Image courtesy of Microsoft AI For Good Lab.\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2-giraffe-data-ai.jpg\")
<\/a>The data has helped scientists understand survival and reproduction rates, movements and behavior of the animals. Image courtesy of Microsoft AI For Good Lab.<\/p>\nAs part of their organization\u2019s Masai Giraffe Project, Bond and Lee\u2019s team would drive around to spot giraffes and capture photos of patterns on the right side of their bodies. But with six expeditions organized annually year after year, the team has gathered millions of photos over time.<\/p>\n
Their earlier methods required the team to manually crop photos to focus on the giraffe\u2019s body, a process that took them weeks. A separate model was then deployed to identify individuals. However, as photos from expeditions piled up, the processing time increased drastically. \u201cIt started to kind of fail,\u201d Bond said. \u201cEvery time we put new data in, it would take longer and longer, like a week or two just for matching. That was hampering our research.\u201d<\/p>\n
The use of artificial intelligence models has now helped speed up the process. The methodology involves multiple algorithms that crop giraffes out of images, identify the chest area for patterns, and then compare the extracted patterns with the ones in the data set built by the Wild Nature Institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe task of the algorithm is to compare that picture with other giraffes,\u201d Juan Lavista Ferres, chief data scientist at the AI for Good Lab, told Mongabay in a video interview. \u201cAnd see which of these giraffes have the same pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n
The technology has helped the team at the Wild Nature Institute to draw inferences about entire populations across huge swaths of the ecosystem. \u201cEvery time we see a giraffe again, we are then able to match the photos and build an encounter history,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
The data have helped them come up with estimates for survival and reproduction rates, movements, and behavior of the animals. These, in turn, have proved critical to making targeted decisions on conservation and habitat management. Bond and Lee said they\u2019ve also been able to understand the multilevel social structure of giraffes across landscapes. \u201cAnd even within one landscape, we have been able to understand [in] which particular parts of the landscape the giraffes are doing well and where they are doing poorly,\u201d Bond said.<\/p>\n
The duo said they plan to continue to use the data and technology to identify critical areas for the animals, while also working with local communities to ensure peaceful human-animal coexistence.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big part of our mission is to see that people and the giraffes are both thriving together,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWe see it on the ground already where humans and wildlife coexist, and it\u2019s just the matter of will and willpower.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banner image: Endangered reticulated giraffes in East Africa. Giraffe populations have declined in the last few decades primarily due to habitat loss and poaching. Image by Rhett A. Butler\/Mongabay.<\/p>\n
Abhishyant Kidangoor\u00a0is a staff writer at Mongabay. Find him on \ud835\udd4f\u00a0@AbhishyantPK<\/a>.<\/p>\n Where are the giraffes hiding? Predictive tracking tech points the way<\/a><\/p>\n
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