Seabird surveillance techniques

Ecology researchers may soon be able to collect large quantities of behavioural data on nesting seabirds using automated surveillance computer vision techniques.

Ecologists may soon be able to collect large quantities of behavioural data on nesting seabirds using automated surveillance computer vision techniques.

This is the hope of researchers at Microsoft Research’s Computational Ecology and Environmental Science group (CEES) who are working with ornithologists from the Evolutionary Biology and Behavioural Ecology group at Sheffield University to develop automatic computer surveillance techniques for the monitoring of seabird populations.

The researchers at CEES have now teamed up with Lincoln University to further advance their computer vision algorithms as part of a project that has received funding from the EPSRC.

The teams aim to use these algorithms to monitor a population of Common Guillemots and automatically analyse video data of the birds in their cliff nesting area on Skomer Island, off the coast of Wales. Researchers believe that this will provide a good indication of both seabird population trends and the health of marine life in general.

Register now to continue reading

Thanks for visiting The Engineer. You’ve now reached your monthly limit of news stories. Register for free to unlock unlimited access to all of our news coverage, as well as premium content including opinion, in-depth features and special reports.  

Benefits of registering

  • In-depth insights and coverage of key emerging trends

  • Unrestricted access to special reports throughout the year

  • Daily technology news delivered straight to your inbox