Australia Tests AI to Stop Wildlife Smuggling

"A recent seven‑month experiment in Australia tried two artificial‑intelligence tools on real police seizures. The aim was to see if computers could spot illegal animals in cargo and help officers act faster. The trial seized 116 creatures, mainly reptiles and crustaceans from five groups: Tiliqua, Egernia, Oedura, Chelodina and Euastacus. Police scanned 48 packages with a special X‑ray machine called RTT110. The best AI model, named AT. 3, correctly flagged smuggled animals in 56% of the scans and produced 48 detailed 3‑D images that let experts confirm what was hidden.Separately, 33 blue‑tongue lizards (Tiliqua scincoides) were examined with a handheld X‑ray fluorescence device. By feeding the data into existing machine‑learning models, investigators could guess where each lizard came from. The analysis showed that common blue‑tongue lizards were rarely caught in the wild, whereas shingleback lizards (Tiliqua rugosa) more often were. When the AI results were shared with law‑enforcement teams, they saw fewer parcels slip out through postal services. This shows that adding smart tech to the investigation toolkit can lower wildlife trafficking and support smarter, evidence‑based policing. "