AI is now being tested to protect the UK’s endangered red squirrel population.
The Squirrel Agent AI, which is being tested around the UK, detects different types of squirrels using their chins, ears and tails, according to Emma Mcclenaghan, chief executive of Genysys Engine, who built the programme.
It can tell squirrels apart with 97% accuracy, according to its developers.
Although artificial intelligence is being used to spot animals all around the UK, like puffins on Scotland’s Isle of May, the Squirrel Agent takes it step further by reacting when it spots different types of squirrels.
When greys are spotted, push notifications are sent to conservationists’ phones, traps can be triggered, and contraceptives delivered to keep the grey population under control.
When the AI spots a red squirrel, it can trigger feeders or deliver medicine.
Since grey squirrels were introduced by the Victorians in the 1870s, the UK’s red squirrel population has fallen from around 3.5 million to a few hundred thousand, according to the government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency.
That’s compared with an estimated population of 2.7 million grey squirrels, which outcompete their red cousins in size, territory and food.
The next stage of the programme will identify individual squirrels. Pic: Genysys Engine
The greys can also carry a disease called squirrelpox, which is deadly to red squirrels.
Although the Squirrel Agent is now being used across the UK, Ms Mcclenaghan and her partner originally invented it to increase the local squirrel population for their border collie.
“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,” she told Sky News.
“So it was something we were going to build just for ourselves.”
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Now, five organisations, including Bangor University, the Scottish Wildlife Trust and Ulster Wildlife, are testing the AI.
Soon, the Squirrel Agent will begin identifying individual squirrels by analysing their whiskers.
“The whiskers are like an individual fingerprint,” said Ms Mcclenaghan.
“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.”