arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 20

ChiroEcho: extending automated bat vocalisation classification beyond the learned taxonomy

ChiroEcho is a deep learning framework that jointly predicts bat species and genus, then uses genus predictions together with geographic species distributions to identify species not present in the training taxonomy. By incorporating geographic constraints, the system expands its effective taxonomy, enabling classification of 41 out of 48 native European bat species—an increase from 73% to 85% coverage. The study demonstrates that limited evaluation data can mask species‑level performance and that combining coarse predictions with external constraints can recover labels for unseen fine‑grained classes.

By Burooj Ghani, Welmoed Eversteijn, Milan van Hirtum, Juan Sebasti\'an Ca\~nas, Vincent J. Kalkman, Dan Stowell, A. Leonie Baier
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 24

Active Learning for Biodiversity Monitoring: From Label Efficiency to Reliable Ecological Inference

The paper discusses how active learning (AL) can alleviate the expert annotation bottleneck in biodiversity monitoring by selecting the most informative samples under a fixed budget. It highlights that while AL reduces labeling effort, its non-random sample selection complicates model validation, calibration, and ecological inference, issues often overlooked in current studies. The authors review existing AL research across acoustic and image data, identify gaps such as limited species coverage and lack of real-world deployments, and propose a tutorial framework and roadmap for developing AL methods that support efficient training, reliable validation, and trustworthy ecological conclusions.

By Ben McEwen, Shiqi Zhang, Dan Stowell
arXiv AI
Jul 17

Automated identification of Ichneumonoidea wasps via YOLO-based deep learning: Integrating HiresCam for Explainable AI

arXiv:2603. 16351v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Accurate taxonomic identification of parasitoid wasps within the superfamily Ichneumonoidea is essential for biodiversity assessment, ecological monitoring, and biological control programs.

By Joao Manoel Herrera Pinheiro, Gabriela Do Nascimento Herrera, Alvaro Doria Dos Santos, Luciana Bueno Dos Reis Fernandes, Ricardo V. Godoy, Eduardo A. B. Almeida, Helena Carolina Onody, Marcelo Andrade Da Costa Vieira, Angelica Maria Penteado-Dias, Marcelo Becker
arXiv AI
Sep 12

Can Edge-Deployable Vision-Language Models Identify Species?

arXiv:2609. 11916v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Camera traps often run in the field on edge hardware with limited or no connectivity, making small, locally-deployable vision-language models (VLMs) -- not frontier-scale ones -- the practically relevant class to evaluate for species identification.

By William Zhou, Mayukha Siripuram, Xiao Yan, Ziqi Liu, Yi Ding
arXiv Statistics ML
Sep 28

SAGE: A sampling-aware global evaluation benchmark for species distribution modeling

The paper introduces SAGE, a Sampling‑Aware Global Evaluation benchmark for species distribution modeling that uses GBIF records for training and sPlotOpen vegetation plots for presence‑absence evaluation across 5,771 plant species. It groups species by sampling effort and relative prevalence to assess how well single‑species and multi‑species deep‑learning SDMs perform under different data conditions. The study finds that Random Forests and DeepSDMs perform best overall, with DeepSDMs excelling for infrequently recorded species only when bias‑correction techniques are applied.

By Emilia Arens, Nina van Tiel, Robin Zbinden, Damien Robert, Lukas Drees, Chiara Vanalli, Benjamin Kellenberger, Niklaus E. Zimmermann, Lo\"ic Pellissier, Devis Tuia, Jan Dirk Wegner
arXiv AI
Aug 25

Hierarchy-Aware Supervised Uncertainty Estimation for Black-box LLM Taxonomic Reasoning

The paper introduces a method for estimating uncertainty in hierarchical taxonomic reasoning produced by black‑box large language models (LLMs). By extracting proxy features with an open‑source tool and training lightweight supervised estimators that incorporate hierarchy‑aware supervision, the authors predict rank‑wise correctness. Across three LLMs, these estimators outperform token‑likelihood baselines, raising micro AUROC from 0.57 to 0.75–0.80, with a rank‑specific multi‑head design delivering the best results.

By Shuting Xie, Nathaniel Lesperance, Graham W. Taylor