© Benedict Wilson
Puffin are a much-loved Scottish seabird, however little is really known about their population size and breeding success due to the remote locations they inhabit.
This project seeks to improve current approaches used to monitor puffin populations by developing 3D digital twin to map long-term burrow occupancy using high-resolution imagery and sensor data of burrows, combined with AI technology for identification.
If found to be successful, this technology could be rolled out to increase monitoring coverage to include otherwise inaccessible islands and burrow habitats, and extend to other burrow nesting species like shearwater and petrels.
In 2025 SMEEF was able to provide a grant of £135,076 to support this work using resources donated to SMEEF by businesses.