Counting African elephants using satellites

Satellite images aid elephant conservationists - 15th February 2021

Earth observation satellites and sophisticated machine learning are innovating conservation practices, allowing elephants to be monitored across diverse landscapes. Seemingly just grey blobs amidst green splotches, the satellite images, to the keen eye, reveal elephants roaming through woodland.

These images, captured in orbit 600 kilometres above the planet's surface, are providing conservation scientists with a novel means of counting African elephants. The previously labour intensive work of surveying the gentle giants is undertaken using a computer algorithm trained to identify elephants in a variety of backdrops.

This technological advance promises to revolutionise the process, allowing up to 5,000 square kilometres of elephant habitat to be surveyed on a single day, subject to clear skies.

Computer scientist Dr Olga Isupova from the University of Bath, who created the algorithm, explained that: "We just present examples to the algorithm and tell it, 'This is an elephant, this is not an elephant.'". Through this approach, the machine is coached to recognise small details invisible to the naked eye.

The technology has already successfully undergone trials surveying terrain in the Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa.

"It has a high density of elephants, and it has areas of thickets and open savannah, so it’s a great place to test our approach," Oxford University conservationist scientist Dr Isla Duporge explained.