AI tool monitors barn owl chicks with less stress

SCIENTISTS are developing an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to count barn owl chicks by the sound of their calls to avoid disturbing their nests.

- Ben Mitchell reports

PhD student Kavisha Jayathunge, at Bournemouth University, is leading the project to prevent the young birds from being affected by the installation of video cameras to monitor them.

He is working with biologist-turned-electronics engineer Brian Cresswell to create the computer model which can calculate the number of owls by being able to distinguish their individual calls.

Mr Jayathunge said: “We're using AI to count baby barn owls by sound instead of disturbing them in their nests with video cameras.

“This helps reduce stress on the birds and could give us data from natural nest sites, which are often inaccessible for monitoring, not just the artificial nest boxes where most of the data we currently have comes from.”