{"id":10,"date":"2016-11-23T20:02:04","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T20:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dereklee.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=10"},"modified":"2016-11-24T14:49:50","modified_gmt":"2016-11-24T14:49:50","slug":"big-data-for-big-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Data for Big Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wsite-content-title\">Wild Nature Institute Giraffe Research Uses High Tech Big Data Tools<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #626262;\">Part 1: Matching Giraffe Photos Using Virtual Supercomputers<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wildnatureinstitute.org\/uploads\/5\/5\/7\/7\/5577192\/4917765_orig.png?w=1200\" alt=\"Masai giraffe spot patterns used by Wild Nature Institute to identify individuals for demographic research\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Giraffe are the tallest animal on earth, so it is no surprise that scientists have turned to them to apply <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Big_data\" target=\"_blank\">big data<\/a> solutions to wildlife conservation. \u00a0Researchers from the Wild Nature Institute are conducting one of the most ambitious large mammal studies ever undertaken by studying births, deaths, and movements of giraffe across a 4,000 square kilometer landscape in the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania, East Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Derek Lee, Principal Scientist of the Wild Nature Institute said, \u201cThese are big animals, and they cover big distances, so naturally we are using big data to learn where they are doing well, where they are not, and why, so we can protect and connect the areas important to giraffe conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Giraffe populations have declined precipitously across Africa due to habitat loss and illegal killing for meat. \u201cWe needed new tools to figure out how we can save giraffes, and there was a perfect storm of technology that made our work possible,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n<p>Wild Nature Institute scientists are using digital photographs of each animal\u2019s unique and unchanging spot patterns to identify them throughout their lives. They are quantifying births, deaths, and movements of more than 2000 individual giraffes. This individual identification system has been around since the 1960s, but computers running pattern-recognition software have made the technique much easier to implement. In one year, Wild Nature Institute giraffe researchers collect about 9000 photos of giraffes. To match them all requires comparing more than 40 million pairs of photos. \u201cThe pattern-recognition software uses a very robust and fast algorithm, but that is a lot of pairs to match.\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n<p>To perform the millions of calculations required to match his giraffe photos, Dr. Lee asked for and received a grant from Microsoft Azure and their cloud computing service to build virtual supercomputers. The Azure <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Virtual_machine\" target=\"_blank\">virtual machines<\/a> were built with as many cutting-edge processors as possible. Such a supercomputer would be very expensive to build, but the computing power was rented from Microsoft Azure for the few weeks necessary to run a year\u2019s batch of giraffe matching.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce the photos are all matched, they form an encounter history of each animal, so we know where it went, who it was with, whether it had a calf or passed away. I&#8217;m really excited about the partnerships and synergies created when computer science meets wildlife biology. The Azure virtual supercomputers are turning big data into tall data!\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n<p>Coming soon:<br \/>\nPart 2: Machine Learning Finds the Giraffe in the Bushes<br \/>\nPart 3: Velocity, Volume, and Variety in Tall Data for Giraffe Conservation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wild Nature Institute Giraffe Research Uses High Tech Big Data Tools Part 1: Matching Giraffe Photos Using Virtual Supercomputers Giraffe are the tallest animal on earth, so it is no surprise that scientists have turned to them to apply big data solutions to wildlife conservation. \u00a0Researchers from the Wild Nature Institute are conducting one of &#8230; <a title=\"Big Data for Big Animals\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Big Data for Big Animals\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":284,"featured_media":19,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[5,6,7,4],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecology","category-wildlife-conservation","tag-animals","tag-giraffe","tag-wild-nature-institute","tag-wildlife"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Big Data for Big Animals - Derek Lee<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big Data for Big Animals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wild Nature Institute Giraffe Research Uses High Tech Big Data Tools Part 1: Matching Giraffe Photos Using Virtual Supercomputers Giraffe are the tallest animal on earth, so it is no surprise that scientists have turned to them to apply big data solutions to wildlife conservation. \u00a0Researchers from the Wild Nature Institute are conducting one of ... 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He also studied migration of Black Brant in Humboldt Bay as well as fire ecology of small mammals in California's oak woodlands and California Spotted Owls in the Sierra Nevada.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.wildnatureinstitute.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/dereklee\\\/author\\\/dereklee\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Big Data for Big Animals - Derek Lee","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Big Data for Big Animals","og_description":"Wild Nature Institute Giraffe Research Uses High Tech Big Data Tools Part 1: Matching Giraffe Photos Using Virtual Supercomputers Giraffe are the tallest animal on earth, so it is no surprise that scientists have turned to them to apply big data solutions to wildlife conservation. \u00a0Researchers from the Wild Nature Institute are conducting one of ... Read more","og_url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/","og_site_name":"Derek Lee","article_published_time":"2016-11-23T20:02:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-11-24T14:49:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":450,"height":385,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/11\/4917765_orig-e1479998973165.png?fit=450%2C385&ssl=1","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Derek Lee","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Derek Lee","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/"},"author":{"name":"Derek Lee","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/#\/schema\/person\/41b42fba55c50c75d88b1a44c47d067c"},"headline":"Big Data for Big Animals","datePublished":"2016-11-23T20:02:04+00:00","dateModified":"2016-11-24T14:49:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/"},"wordCount":448,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/11\/4917765_orig-e1479998973165.png?fit=450%2C385&ssl=1","keywords":["animals","giraffe","wild nature institute","wildlife"],"articleSection":["ecology","wildlife conservation"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2016","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/","url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/","name":"Big Data for Big Animals - 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Current research investigates Masai Giraffe and other large mammal populations within a fragmented landscape in Tanzania. This work examines how births, deaths, and movements of ungulates are impacted by increasingly fragmented wildlife habitat, and what conservation actions are most effective. He spent 10 years researching the impacts of climate and ocean conditions on survival, reproduction, and population growth rates of marine predators such as northern elephant seals, Common Murres, and Cassin's Auklets at the South Farallon Islands, California. His work was included in a conservation and management plan for seabirds in the California Current. He also studied migration of Black Brant in Humboldt Bay as well as fire ecology of small mammals in California's oak woodlands and California Spotted Owls in the Sierra Nevada.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.wildnatureinstitute.org"],"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/author\/dereklee\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/11\/4917765_orig-e1479998973165.png?fit=450%2C385&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgtNOJ-a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/23\/big-data-for-big-animals-part-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":0},"title":"Big Data for Big Animals: Part 3","author":"Derek Lee","date":"November 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Wild Nature Institute Giraffe Research Uses Big Data Tools Part 3: Velocity, Volume, and Variety in Tall Data for Giraffe Conservation Giraffes are big animals, so scientists have turned to big data solutions for giraffe conservation.\u00a0 Researchers from the Wild Nature Institute are conducting one of the largest-scale big mammal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ecology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ecology","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/category\/ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/22\/big-data-for-big-animals-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":1},"title":"Big Data for Big Animals: Part 2","author":"Derek Lee","date":"November 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Giraffe are the tallest animal on earth, so naturally scientists have turned to big data solutions for giraffe conservation.\u00a0 Researchers from the Wild Nature Institute are conducting one of the biggest large mammal studies ever undertaken by studying births, deaths, and movements of more than 2,000 giraffe across a 4,000\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ecology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ecology","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/category\/ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Randomly selected giraffe torso detection results. Note that even giraffes which are small in the image or giraffes which are partly occluded by bushes, are found successfully.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/11\/4220325_orig.png?fit=659%2C220&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/11\/4220325_orig.png?fit=659%2C220&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/11\/4220325_orig.png?fit=659%2C220&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":189,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/189\/wild-nature-institute-penn-state-and-microsoft-azure-work-together-to-find-the-giraffe-in-the-bushes\/","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":2},"title":"Wild Nature Institute, Penn State, and Microsoft Azure Work Together to Find the Giraffe in the Bushes","author":"Derek Lee","date":"February 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Giraffe are the tallest animal on earth, so naturally scientists have turned to big data solutions for giraffe conservation.\u00a0 Researchers from Penn State and Wild Nature Institute are conducting one of the biggest large mammal studies ever undertaken by studying births, deaths, and movements of more than 3,000 giraffes across\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;animal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"animal","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/category\/animal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Giraffe torso photos used to identify more than 3000 individual giraffes as part of the world's largest giraffe study.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/11\/4917765_orig-e1479998973165.png?fit=450%2C385&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/124\/giraffe-skin-disease-linked-to-soil-fertility\/","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":3},"title":"Giraffe Skin Disease Linked to Soil Fertility","author":"Derek Lee","date":"April 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Giraffe Skin Disease is a disorder of the skin that is characterized by crusty lesions on the back side of the front legs of adult Masai giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) the only subspecies in Tanzania.\u00a0Lesions such as the ones shown in this picture on the forelimbs indicate Giraffe Skin Disease.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;animal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"animal","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/category\/animal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Giraffe in Tarangire National Park","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/GirHeadFunk.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/GirHeadFunk.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/GirHeadFunk.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/GirHeadFunk.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/48\/five-wildlife-protection-groups-petitioned-the-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service-to-protect-giraffes-under-the-u-s-endangered-species-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":4},"title":"Five Wildlife Protection Groups Petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Protect Giraffes under the U.S. Endangered Species Act","author":"Derek Lee","date":"April 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In response to recent scientific consensus on giraffes' vulnerability to extinction, five wildlife protection groups today petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect Earth's tallest land animal under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The legal petition, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Humane Society International, The Humane\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;animal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"animal","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/category\/animal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Picture of Giraffes in Tanzania, WIld Nature Institute","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/12\/giraffe01_funky_web.png?fit=878%2C490&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/12\/giraffe01_funky_web.png?fit=878%2C490&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/12\/giraffe01_funky_web.png?fit=878%2C490&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/12\/giraffe01_funky_web.png?fit=878%2C490&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/31\/we-need-you-to-become-a-giraffe-hero\/","url_meta":{"origin":10,"position":5},"title":"We Need You To Become A Giraffe Hero","author":"Derek Lee","date":"December 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Since the announcement that giraffes are Vulnerable to Extinction, many concerned people have asked me what they can do to help save giraffes. Giving money and\/or time to conservation groups like Wild Nature Institute is a great first action to help giraffes. Whatever your skill set, there is an important\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ecology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ecology","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/category\/ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}