About WildEye
Who We Are
Our journey began in 2014 around the time of the Great Elephant Census – a continent-wide survey of the entire African elephant population, conceptualised by Paul G. Allen and Elephants Without Borders, that spanned 2 years, 500 000 km, 10 000 hours, 18 countries, and involved a team of 90 scientists and 286 crew. Paul Maritz, our founder and financier, was convinced that there must be a way to both reduce the cost, and improve the accuracy, of elephant surveying using modern technology. While the development of such technology would come too late for the Great Elephant Census, it would allow for surveys to be conducted more frequently, and at a lower cost in future.
Our mission was then expanded following discussions with Justin Seymour-Smith – the surveys manager for the Trans-Kalahari Predator Programme run by the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU). Paul identified the need to automate the tedious process of annotating the vast quantities of data generated by camera-trap surveys. Again, modern technology offered the opportunity to both reduce the cost, and improve the accuracy of these surveys. Importantly, this would allow such surveys to be performed more regularly, as well as free up the valuable time of the researchers involved.
These projects were combined under a new AI-conservation organisation known as WildEye that would seek to further expand Paul’s vision and provide AI-focused assistance to the conservation community.
We are a team of tech-minded individuals based in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a passion for conservation and a desire to help out with the resources and skills at our fingertips. We apply modern technology – especially in the form of machine vision – to solving challenging conservation problems in order to serve the conservation community at large.
Meet The Team
Paul Maritz
Founder and Financier
Paul was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), before moving to South Africa at an early age. After completing degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science at the Universities of Natal and Cape Town, he began his working career in the UK, before moving to the US and working for various companies such as Intel, Microsoft and VMware. Paul has a passion for Africa and conservation, and has been the driving force behind a number of conservation initiatives, providing funding and technical guidance.
Dr Nicholas Osner
Technical Director
Nicholas obtained his PhD in electronic engineering from the University of Pretoria, specialising in artificial intelligence and electronic warfare (radar countermeasures & modelling) before joining WildEye Conservation in 2019 as TrapTagger’s project lead, subsequently taking over the management of all our projects.
Hannes Naude
AI Guru
Hannes completed his M.Eng in electronic engineering at the Rand Afrikaans University in 2003. Starting his career in the imaging systems department at Denel Dynamics allowed him to further develop his knowledge of algorithms in general and machine learning in particular. The original driving force behind WildEye’s early Elephant Survey System and its subsequent transition into SurveyScope and SkySeeker, he is now one of our AI gurus.
Marguerite Robinson
TrapTagger Developer
Marguerite completed her electronic engineering degree at the University of Pretoria in 2022 before joining WildEye as a developer on TrapTagger.
Ewan Trollip
SurveyScope Developer
Ewan obtained his Bsc in information technology at North-West University in 2024, before joining WildEye as a developer on SurveyScope.
Innoventix Consulting
Technology Partner
Innoventix is a machine-vision consulting firm based in Centurion, South Africa that provides additional technical support to WildEye’s projects.