AI (artificial intelligence) in a new breakthrough experiment is tested to protect the endangered red squirrel population in the United Kingdom.
According to Sky News, Emma Mcclenaghan, the chief executive of Genysys Engine, built a program, the Squirrel Agent AI, which uses artificial intelligence to detect different types of squirrels through their chins, ears, and tails.
The developers who tested the program across the UK said that it is capable of telling squirrels apart with 97% accuracy.
When the Squirrel Agent detects a grey squirrel, it sends a grey squirrel, triggers traps, and delivers contraceptives to control the population of grey squirrels, while when it spots a red squirrel, it activates feeders to provide them food and delivers medicines to keep them healthy.
Ms. Mcclenaghan told Sky News, “He just loves watching squirrels like all dogs, and we wanted eventually, given we have a big window at the back, something for him to watch. So it was something we were going to build just for ourselves."
Moreover, currently, five organisations, including Bangor University, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, and Ulster Wildlife, are testing the new technology, and it is expected that soon these AI agents will be able to identify individual squirrels by analysing their whiskers, which the researcher defines as “individual fingerprints.”
“So, the idea is to identify each individual squirrel, not just whether it's red, but you could say, 'That is Sally the squirrel, and her dad was Ben, and she travelled up to Scotland through England'. So we can just get a bit more conservation data," she further added.
Furthermore, as per the UK’s Animal and Plant Health Agency, the population of red squirrels has fallen from around 3.5 million to a few hundred thousand compared to 2.7 million since grey squirrels were introduced by the Victorians in the 1870s.
