By Shannon Moudy
Publication Date: 2026-05-07 17:38:00
A new study led by researchers at Washington State University and Google finds artificial intelligence can dramatically speed up the painstaking work of tracking wildlife with remote cameras, cutting analysis time from months or even a year to just days, while producing nearly the same scientific conclusions as humans.
The study, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, involved testing whether a fully automated AI system could replace humans in processing hundreds of thousands, even millions of camera trap images. They were collected in Washington, Montana’s Glacier National Park, and Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve.
Researchers found that, for most species, models built from AI-identified images closely matched those produced by human experts. Across key measures such as where animals are located and what environmental factors influence them, the results aligned in roughly 85–90% of cases, with limited divergence for rare or difficult-to-identify species, WSU said.
The…