AI to help us hit our predator-free targets in the countdown to 2050
Today marks 10,000 days until 31 December 2050 the deadline of the ambitious goal to rid the country of three of the worst introduced predators devastating our native wildlife: possums, mustelids (ferrets, stoats, weasels) and rats. There isnt a day to waste. The very survival of Aotearoa New Zealands birds, geckoes and other small creatures depends on the elimination of these furry ferals. Collectively these hunters kill an estimated 25 million of our native birds each year. Some 4000 of New Zealands native species are threatened or at risk of extinction proportionally one of the highest extinction rates in the world. A new artificial intelligence-enabled tool will soon greatly boost predator control and biodiversity monitoring, according to the New Zealand-based research and development company Critter Solutions. Company field trials are underway on fully automated predator control traps that will only trigger when a target has been identified by AI as a pest species. Critter Solutions is a collaboration between Boffa Miskell and Red Fern Solutions. Funding from Predator Free 2050 Limited through the Governments Jobs for Nature initiative in 2021 helped to speed up the development of this new technology. Project lead Dr Helen Blackie from Boffa Miskell says the traps effectively think for themselves and make a decision whether an interacting animal is a target pest species or not. Using AI to trigger traps means that the traps design can be more open and appealing for pests to go into, as it is not also trying to stop other species from entering. Traditional traps typically require the pest to push, pull or stand on a trigger to activate the trap, which can also reduce catch-rates. By using AI we can do away with manual triggers completely, says Blackie. Most other AI traps currently available use Cloud technology which relies on information relayed from the trap to the Cloud, with the animal being held until a decision is made. Blackie says a key technical success has been developing the trap so that its extremely fast at triggering when an animal is recognised within a fraction of a second after detecting the presence of a pest. A successful roll-out will help deal with an ongoing challenge of remote pest control: avoiding collateral damage among native birds such as kea and kaka. We want to ensure that achieving national eradication of rats, mustelids and possums, the Predator Free 2050 goal, is carried out in the best way possible, says Professor Dan Tompkins of Predator Free 2050. Reducing impacts to non-target species is a critical part of that. The traps are low power, self-resetting, and self luring meaning they can be left in the field for long periods without servicing. The traps remotely notify a user that it has triggered and can send a picture of the animal it has been triggered by. The traps have passed requirements for delivering a humane kill for rats, stoats and possums in independent trials. As well as controlling pest species, the device can also be used in a passive mode to collect monitoring data on native species. The Critter Solutions Species Specific Kill Trap is expected to be ready for sale by late 2024. Tompkins leads the products to projects portfolio and says the Predator Free mission was launched knowing that new tools and approaches would be needed to get the job done. This is one of many great advances that we are already seeing. Set in 2016, the Predator Free 2050 target is part of a nation plan to tackle our biodiversity crisis. There have been wins to celebrate along the way. To be successful, it requires the use of old and new trapping techniques and a collective effort involving everyone from iwi, the public and private sectors, communities groups and individuals setting traps in their own gardens. Start backyard trapping. If you live in a suburban section, you're probably best to start by targeting mice and rats. However, if you live on a lifestyle block or a section that is near a bush reserve or the coast, rats, stoats, possums and feral cats are likely to be present, and you will need bigger traps. Join a local predator control group. The more people involved the greater the outcomes that can be achieved.