AI model rediscovers Australian Bristlebird feared lost since 2020 bushfires

Scientists in Australia used the Artificial Intelligence monitors to track down rare bird species feared lost since the 2019-2020 summer bushfires. Eastern Bristlebird, described as 'nondescript, brown birds' are endangered bird species, found in Australia's temperate regions. In northern Australia, the previous estimates suggested that there could be as few as 40 individual eastern bristlebirds. But after Queensland's Gondwana rainforest was ravaged by bushfires, they were not seen or heard of.

How did the scientists find eastern bristlebird?

Researchers paired the Artificial Intelligence with audio recordings to track down the endangered eastern bristlebird, not seen since the summer of 2020. A total of five acoustic monitors in the bristlebird's northern range last year in an exercise called passive acoustic monitoring. They were placed by Queensland University of Technology researchers in partnership with Melbourne-based BirdLife Australia and Brisbane-based Healthy Land and Water.

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Traditionally, that would have meant a person going into the forest and playing a recording of a call, in an effort to get a response from the elusive bird.

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"But you have gotta be at the right place at the right time and the bird’s got to want to respond," Queensland University of Technology’s Susan Fuller was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Queensland University of Technology's computer scientist Dr Lance De Vine is credited to have developed an Artificial Intelligence model that recognised bristlebird calls among days of field recordings from the acoustic monitors.

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De Vine’s AI program was accurately able to identify the endangered bird call from other similar noises, and then let it loose upon the rest of the recordings, from which it discovered 350 eastern bristlebird calls over a two-month period.

"Without AI we can’t do this," Susan Fuller told Guardian.

"This is a game changer for us."

(With inputs from agencies)

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