Clever ways to count curlews

THE AI phenomenon has its detractors and disadvantages, but one—niche—area in which it is proving useful is that of curlew monitoring.

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A study by the GWCT and Liverpool John Moores University has come up with a real-time object detection model called YOLOv10, which was used to monitor the endangered wader bird at 11 Welsh sites during the 2024 nesting season. It can recognise several species, including deer, foxes and rabbits, and can process images from AI-enabled cameras in real time, filtering out blanks; it correctly identified curlew chicks in more than 90% of cases. GWCT staff describe it as a 'game changer' in preserving the curlew, the population of which is threatened by habi