A computer scientist in Brazil has devised a futuristic solution to this common issue, where roughly sixteen wild animals become roadkill every second: employing AI to warn cars of their existence.
For many creatures that have been compelled to coexist ever-closer with humans, direct strikes on the massive road network of the huge South American country pose the greatest threat.
The Brazilian Center for Road Ecology (CBEE) estimates that 475 million vertebrates—mostly smaller species like possums, armadillos, and capybaras—die on roads every year.
“It is the biggest direct impact on wildlife today in Brazil,” CBEE coordinator Alex Bager told AFP.
Shocked by the carnage in the world’s most biodiverse country, computer science student Gabriel Souto Ferrante sprung into action.
The 25-year-old started by identifying the five medium- and large-sized species most likely to fall victim to traffic accidents: the puma, the giant anteater, the tapir, the maned wolf and the jaguarundi, a type of wild cat.
Souto, who is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), then created a database with thousands of images of these animals, and trained an AI model to recognize them in real time.
Numerous tests followed, and were successful, according to the results of his efforts recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Souto collaborated with the USP Institute of Mathematical and Computer Sciences.
For the project to become a reality, Souto said scientists would need “support from the companies that manage the roads,” including access to traffic cameras and “edge computing” devices — hardware that can relay a real-time warning to drivers like some navigation apps do.
There would also need to be input from the road concession companies, “to remove the animal or capture it,” he told AFP.
It is hoped the technology, by reducing wildlife strikes, will also save human lives.
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