Government administrations and researchers in Australia are teaming to use drones and facial recognition technology in an effort to count, monitor, and protect the nation’s beloved koala bears.
The government of South Australia, wildlife specialists at Flinders University, and the conservation charity Koala Life have worked up a plan to fly drones to film koalas in their habitat, and run that footage through facial recognition applications to identify individual bears. The process seeks to create a full repertoire of each member of the state’s koala population, and monitor how their total numbers evolve over time. The ability to distinguish the marsupials from one another will also permit researchers to better understand their movements, behavior, and psychology – and determine whether the presence of nominally noninvasive drone watching creates significant stress.
Drones shooting footage for facial recognition purposes will be flown initially amid captive…
