by Scientists develop a tool for artificial intelligence (AI) to count barn -eulen chicks through the sound of their calls to avoid that they disturb their nests.
The PhD student Kavisha Jayathunge at Bournemouth University leads the project to prevent the young birds from being affected by the installation of video cameras to monitor them.
He works with the biologist electronics engineer Brian Cresswell to create the computer model that can calculate the number of owls by being able to distinguish your individual calls.
Mr. Jayathunge said: “We use AI to count baby -barn -tunes through sound instead of disturbing them with video cameras in their nests.
“This helps to reduce birds and could give us data from natural nest locations that are often not accessible to surveillance, not just the artificial nest boxes from which most data from which we currently come from come.”
He explained that AI technology would be able to identify distinctions in sounds that are made by every baby owl that could not be distinguished for the human ear.
It would choose the frequency differences that would display the number of birds and the identity of each bird.
He added: “Bring the AI and ecology together in such a positive way is a good example of how this technology can be used for the better.”
Mr. Cresswell, who has contributed to testing the technology on nesting boxes in North Dorset, said: “These basic data are important for monitoring the breeding success of barn -eulen, which can vary greatly between years and breeding sites.
“The AI model is also a great research instrument to examine the behavior of young owls and the purpose of their hissing, which is assumed that it is a means to negotiate who is eaten by their parents in the next food supply.
“There can also be potential for the Hissanalyses to determine how hungry the owners are, which in turn is important data for monitoring the breeding success.”
The project aims to monitor barn -eulen -küken without disturbing them (Alamy/Pa)
Mr. Jayathunge said that the long -term goal of the project was to develop the technology so that volunteers and conservationists were able to capture the sounds of hissing owlets on their nests.
He explained that Scheune -owl -Zische was sound, so that Audio recorder could be put away from the nests to keep strict protocols, protect the barns and their nests as part of Appendix One of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
He added: “It has great potential for citizen science because it does not require expensive and specialized equipment – everyone could collect recordings and send them for analysis.
“By making the Scheun-Ulennest monitoring more scalable and less invasive, we hope that this project can contribute to better long-term results for the species.”
