Drones and AI keep count of Falklands seabirds

For their study, scientists at Duke University and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) used a deep-learning algorithm to analyse over 10,000 drone images of mixed colonies of seabirds in the Falkland Islands. Their findings are published in Ornithological Applications.

The Falklands are home to the world's largest colonies of black-browed albatrosses and second-largest colonies of southern rockhopper penguins. Hundreds of thousands of birds breed on the islands in densely interspersed groups.

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The deep-learning algorithm is said to have correctly identified and counted the albatrosses with 97 per cent accuracy and the penguins with 87 per cent. The automated counts were within five per cent of human counts about 90 per cent of the time.

"Using drone surveys and deep learning gives us an alternative that is remarkably accurate, less disruptive and significantly easier. One person, or a small team, can do it, and the equipment you need to do it isn't all that costly or complicated," said Madeline C. Hayes, a remote sensing analyst at the Duke University Marine Lab, who led the study.