Thanks to its unique and diverse wildlife and fauna, Australia is trying to deal with trafficking issues using new technology Australia is no stranger to wildlife trafficking activities even though it is illegal.
Some of the current ways of tracking unlawful smuggling include the use of tools like x-ray scanners, detection at borders, and the use of dogs. The country’s scientists are now finding that using 3D x-rays and AI are really helpful in detecting illegally trafficked wildlife in all types of cargo. The scientific community has created a scanned library of birds, lizards, and fish and uses AI algorithms to recognize them in cargo. Such AI tools have managed to identify the animals correctly more than 82% of the time. The false hits are pretty low at under 2%.
This information was gleaned from a study that was published in a Journal related to conservation. It is a significant one as technology is proving to be pretty effective in preventing trafficking. Import and export can save the country from the introduction of pests and possible diseases as well. Sam Hush, who is the Environment Compliance secretary said that taking animals out of their natural habitat creates risks. These risks include disruption of the ecosystem, and species conservation and cause species populations to also dip.
Per Dr. Chris Locke, Dy. Secretary of the Biosecurity division (DAFF), illegal trafficking has been a problem for a while. He is happy that the 3D technology and related tools offer a potential that is limitless in saving native species. The hope is that such innovative technologies will add more safeguards to preservation. The chance of this being used worldwide is pretty high as well.
