Artificial Intelligence is Monitoring Traces of Wildlife in the Falkland Islands

Scientists at Duke University and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have come up with an interesting set of deep learning algorithms that could analyze more than 10,000 drone images of mixed colonies of seabirds in the Falkland Islands off Argentina's coast. The Falklands are home to the world's largest colonies of black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophris) and the second-largest colonies of southern rockhopper penguins (Eudyptes c. chrysocome). Hundreds of thousands of birds breed on the islands in densely interspersed groups. The deep-learning algorithm made by the scientists has successfully identified and counted the albatrosses with 97% and the penguins with 87% accuracy. Madeline C. Hayes, a remote sensing analyst at the Duke University Marine Lab, who led the study has a view that using drone surveys and deep learning gives them an alternative that is remarkably accurate, less disruptive, and significantly easier. One person, or a small team, can do it, and the equipment they need to do it isn't all that costly or complicated.