遭全家杀戮后被当成玩物囚禁，人脸识别技术能拯救黑猩猩吗？
和人类相似度高达98%的动物，聪明可爱的黑猩猩幼崽常被偷猎并贩卖给一些富人作为宠物秘密饲养，而随后伴随的则是残忍的杀戮……
不过最近，美国的动物保护主义者和计算机专家们合作开发了一款黑猩猩面部识别系统，将用于识别网络上被贩卖的黑猩猩。
(Via BBC)
Seven-year-old Manno was captured as an infant in 2011 and smuggled to Syria (via BBC)
BBC此前曾进行过长达一年的深入调查，揭露了残酷的黑猩猩走私产业链。
根据这个报道，黑猩猩的走私背后常伴随着残忍的杀害和贩卖。它们被贩卖给富有的家庭作为宠物或者贩卖给商业动物园被迫表演节目。黑猩猩幼崽的售价可高达12500美元。
Trafficked animals are advertised on social media (via BBC)
BBC的报道揭露了臭名昭著的野生动物走私集散中心，位于西非的科特迪瓦，一只1岁黑猩猩的解救案件。
根据这个报道，为捕获一只黑猩猩幼崽，犯罪分子常常要对其整个家族进行屠杀。
The usual tactic used by poachers is to shoot as many of the adults in a family as possible. This prevents them from resisting the capture of the baby and their bodies can then be sold as bushmeat. To obtain one infant alive, up to 10 adults are typically slaughtered.
偷猎者通常采用的手段是射杀其家族中尽可能多的成年黑猩猩。这能防止他们阻止猎捕幼崽，而且它们的尸体也可作为丛林肉（野生兽肉）出售。为了捕获一只活的黑猩猩幼崽，多达10只成年黑猩猩遭到屠杀。
The animals are in high demand in the Gulf states, south-east Asia and China, with buyers prepared to pay high prices and additional fees to help bypass international controls. And while they may be well looked-after while they are young, chimpanzees soon become too strong and potentially violent to be kept in a home.
这些动物在海湾国家、东南亚国家和中国的需求很大。买方会支付高昂的价格和额外的为规避国际管制所需的费用。然后，尽管黑猩猩年幼的时候会被照顾得很好，一旦它们长大就会变得过于强壮和潜在的暴力性而不适于圈养在家中。
Karl Ammann, a Swiss wildlife activist who campaigns against chimp trafficking, describes it as a “kind of slavery” and warns that when chimps cease being cute infants, they face a terrible fate.
瑞士反对黑猩猩贩卖活动的野生动物活动家Karl Ammann把这种现象描述为“有点像奴隶制”，并告诫说当黑猩猩渡过可爱的小婴儿时期，它们将会面临悲惨的命运。
▲The secret trade in baby chimps
他告诉BBC，这些成年后的黑猩猩会被锁进笼子，有些情况下甚至会被杀掉。
长年以来，这些走私犯会把捕获的黑猩猩幼崽的视频发布到网上进行兜售。而这些视频大多是在一间铺有蓝色瓷砖的屋子里拍摄的。
An estimated 3,000 great apes, including orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees, are lost from the wild every year as a result of illegal trade, according to the UN Environment Programme. They are either sold, killed during the hunt or die in captivity. About two thirds of the apes lost are chimpanzees - an endangered species.
根据联合国环境计划署的统计，每年有大约3000只大型类人猿，包括猩猩、大猩猩和黑猩猩，因非法交易而从野生环境中消失。它们或被售卖、活在猎捕过程中被杀戮或死去。大约三分之二的失踪的类人猿是黑猩猩——一种濒危物种。
▲The secret trade in baby chimps
而美国的动物保护专家Alexandra Russo正是在调查网上猿类走私和在Instagram和Facebook上搜寻被出售的黑猩猩时突然有了开发这个黑猩猩面部识别系统的想法。
她告诉BBC，他们花费了大量时间在层层叠叠的网络世界搜寻线索。因此想要找到一种更高效的方法，借助某种软件，快速地在网络搜索中自动识别猿类的脸。
Alexandra将她的想法告诉了计算机视觉专家Colin McCormick博士，随后就开发出了“ChimpFace”这个软件。
Jane was rescued after being trafficked from Nigeria to Cairo with five other baby chimps (via BBC)
那这个软件是如何工作的呢？
It first detects that the image shows a chimpanzee and then determines the individual.
首先，这个软件会侦察到黑猩猩的形象，然后来辨别个体的特征。
"We train the algorithm to recognise individual chimps using up to 30 photos of an individual, adapting it to the chimp's facial structures," explains Dr Colin McCormick.
“我们用单个黑猩猩的超过30张照片来训练计算机的算法来识别个体黑猩猩”。
"It is important to get images of each individual in different positions, facial expressions, in altered lighting, and with the head tilted at a different angle," explains Alexandra.
“非常重要的一点是，要获得每只黑猩猩不同角度的形象，面部表情，在不同灯光下的形象，以及它的头部抬起的不同角度，”Alexandra向BBC解释道。
The algorithm technology is being trained using a database of 3,000 ape face images.
这种算法技术需要用到3000只猿类的面部形象的数据库来进行训练。
▲Facial recognition tool tackles illegal chimp trade
Poppy was confiscated at an internal border in Liberia aged 6 months (via BBC)
这项工作得到了全球9个黑猩猩保护组织的支持，他们从世界各地发来黑猩猩的照片。这些黑猩猩既包括生活在庇护所的被解救的遭猎捕黑猩猩，也包括野生黑猩猩。
由于黑猩猩与人类的面部相似度很高，要让计算机区别黑猩猩和人类的面孔并不容易。
"They send us images of known named apes so we can build the individual recognition algorithm, but the fact that chimpanzee faces are so close to human faces creates a harder technical challenge," Dr McCormick says.
“他们给我们发来了知道名字的黑猩猩的照片用于建立个体黑猩猩的识别算法，但实际情况是，黑猩猩的脸和人类的脸太相似，对技术是个很大的挑战，”McCormick说。
Chimpanzees share an estimated 98% of their genes with humans, which means that "the facial algorithms have to be really good at distinguishing human faces online from chimpanzees, unlike with elephants or tigers".
黑猩猩与人类共享98%的基因，也就意味着“面部算法必须非常精通于区分人类的脸和黑猩猩的脸，而不像区分出大象或者老虎那样简单。”
▲Facial recognition tool tackles illegal chimp trade
The algorithm can track stolen chimps advertised for sale on social media (via BBC)
Alexandra希望这个软件系统也能为其他的野生动物救援组织所用，用来打击野生动物非法交易网络。此外，他们这在寻求与社交媒体公司的合作，用于侦察野生动物走私的犯罪行为。
"Technology is our enemy in the ways it has made it easier for chimps to be trafficked online but it is also our ally in tackling this crime where it lives," Jenny Desmond observed.
而黑猩猩解救和保护组织Liberia的创始人Jenny Desmond观察到“技术曾是我们的敌人，因为它让黑猩猩更易被网上走私。然而现在技术是我们打击犯罪的盟友。”
▲Facial recognition tool tackles illegal chimp trade
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