Drones, New Sensors, and Geospatial AI Fill in Crucial Species Gaps on the Global Map of Life
May 20, 2025
By Dawn Wright | Esri
Animals across the globe are running out of places to live. Populations of vertebrates such as monkeys, fish and birds declined 73 percent on average between 1970 and 2020, according to the World Wildlife Foundation. And the loss is accelerating, pushing parts of the planet to dangerous tipping points. Nearly one million species are now at risk of vanishing, according to a United Nations report, more than ever before in human history. That number doesn’t include the other species that could be impacted—not to mention those we don’t even know exist.
To reverse the trend, researchers are racing to fill critical holes in biodiversity data in hot spots around the globe.
“If we want to think and talk about conservation, it’s always place-based,” said Walter Jetz, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University where he directs the Center for Biodiversity and Global Change. He is also the Jack and Laura Dangermond Scientific Chair at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. These roles converge on the Map of Life project, a decade-in-the-making global atlas of species populations and trends. “We need to know what’s occurring in a particular place, what might be affected positively or negatively by a particular action, and where else is that particular species? Are you the sole or key steward of it? And is it well protected elsewhere or not?”
But taking careful measurements—fundamental to effective mitigation—can be cumbersome and costly, involving dispatching researchers and equipment on days-long expeditions in some of the planet’s hardest-to-reach places. The data collection challenge is inspiring conservationists and researchers to develop a more lightweight approach that can overcome these barriers. Together with partners and support from Sony, Esri, the Field Museum, Rutgers University, the Federal University of Amazonas, and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, the Yale Map of Life (MOL) team developed their new Rapid Assessments approach (MOLRA). It leverages aerial drones—outfitted with sophisticated sensors that almost anyone can deploy nearly anywhere—to collect audio, visual, and genetic samples, with minimal human intervention.
Map of Life Rapid Assessments (MOLRA) field team members fly a drone in tandem, looking for evidence of diverse species at the XPRIZE Rainforest Semifinals in Singapore. Photo credit: Cat Kutz/XPRIZE.
Map of Life Rapid Assessments (MOLRA) field team members fly a drone in tandem, looking for evidence of diverse species at the XPRIZE Rainforest Semifinals in Singapore. Photo credit: Cat Kutz/XPRIZE.
Last December, following five years of competition including a semifinals in Singapore and the finals in Brazil, the MOLRA team was named the runner-up winner of the XPRIZE Rainforest competition. After completing a 24-hour data collection sprint using its sensor-laden drones, the team identified 225 species, including four globally threatened species, in a square kilometer patch of rainforest in Brazil. For these species, the mostly autonomously operated sensors delivered a remarkable 5,000 spatially explicit occurrence records, going beyond a simple species list to supporting detailed species mapping.
“In partnership with Indigenous peoples and local communities, these tools are ideally suited for implementation to monitor, manage, and protect tropical rainforests globally,” said Peter Houlihan, former executive vice president of biodiversity and conservation at XPRIZE.
In the entrepreneurial spirit of the XPRIZE, and with support from Yale Ventures, the Yale team is putting the $2 million award toward expanding the project’s work as part of a spin-off company, Map of Life Solutions. The university spin-off will cater not only to governments and NGOs trying to implement conservation strategies, but also to companies seeking to reduce their local and global impacts.
“As pressures on lands are increasing and climate change accelerates, it is ever more important that we are guided by evidence and quantitative metrics to achieve positive outcomes for biodiversity,” Jetz said. “And it is critical that we ensure this data reaches the desks of decision-makers and is informed by their needs. This is why we are so excited about Map of Life Solutions offering the full link from new data collection technologies to the custom reporting that organizations require.”
Read the full article on the Esri Blog.
Animals across the globe are running out of places to live. Populations of vertebrates such as monkeys, fish and birds declined 73 percent on average between 1970 and 2020, according to the World Wildlife Foundation. And the loss is accelerating, pushing parts of the planet to dangerous tipping points. Nearly one million species are now at risk of vanishing, according to a United Nations report, more than ever before in human history. That number doesn’t include the other species that could be impacted—not to mention those we don’t even know exist.
To reverse the trend, researchers are racing to fill critical holes in biodiversity data in hot spots around the globe.
“If we want to think and talk about conservation, it’s always place-based,” said Walter Jetz, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University where he directs the Center for Biodiversity and Global Change. He is also the Jack and Laura Dangermond Scientific Chair at the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. These roles converge on the Map of Life project, a decade-in-the-making global atlas of species populations and trends. “We need to know what’s occurring in a particular place, what might be affected positively or negatively by a particular action, and where else is that particular species? Are you the sole or key steward of it? And is it well protected elsewhere or not?”
But taking careful measurements—fundamental to effective mitigation—can be cumbersome and costly, involving dispatching researchers and equipment on days-long expeditions in some of the planet’s hardest-to-reach places. The data collection challenge is inspiring conservationists and researchers to develop a more lightweight approach that can overcome these barriers. Together with partners and support from Sony, Esri, the Field Museum, Rutgers University, the Federal University of Amazonas, and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, the Yale Map of Life (MOL) team developed their new Rapid Assessments approach (MOLRA). It leverages aerial drones—outfitted with sophisticated sensors that almost anyone can deploy nearly anywhere—to collect audio, visual, and genetic samples, with minimal human intervention.
Map of Life Rapid Assessments (MOLRA) field team members fly a drone in tandem, looking for evidence of diverse species at the XPRIZE Rainforest Semifinals in Singapore. Photo credit: Cat Kutz/XPRIZE.
Map of Life Rapid Assessments (MOLRA) field team members fly a drone in tandem, looking for evidence of diverse species at the XPRIZE Rainforest Semifinals in Singapore. Photo credit: Cat Kutz/XPRIZE.
Last December, following five years of competition including a semifinals in Singapore and the finals in Brazil, the MOLRA team was named the runner-up winner of the XPRIZE Rainforest competition. After completing a 24-hour data collection sprint using its sensor-laden drones, the team identified 225 species, including four globally threatened species, in a square kilometer patch of rainforest in Brazil. For these species, the mostly autonomously operated sensors delivered a remarkable 5,000 spatially explicit occurrence records, going beyond a simple species list to supporting detailed species mapping.
“In partnership with Indigenous peoples and local communities, these tools are ideally suited for implementation to monitor, manage, and protect tropical rainforests globally,” said Peter Houlihan, former executive vice president of biodiversity and conservation at XPRIZE.
In the entrepreneurial spirit of the XPRIZE, and with support from Yale Ventures, the Yale team is putting the $2 million award toward expanding the project’s work as part of a spin-off company, Map of Life Solutions. The university spin-off will cater not only to governments and NGOs trying to implement conservation strategies, but also to companies seeking to reduce their local and global impacts.
“As pressures on lands are increasing and climate change accelerates, it is ever more important that we are guided by evidence and quantitative metrics to achieve positive outcomes for biodiversity,” Jetz said. “And it is critical that we ensure this data reaches the desks of decision-makers and is informed by their needs. This is why we are so excited about Map of Life Solutions offering the full link from new data collection technologies to the custom reporting that organizations require.”
Read the full article on the Esri Blog.
