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<\/p>\nThe cassowary is a big, violent, flightless creature that is widely considered the world\u2019s most dangerous bird. It is no match, however, for a more powerful beast: the Australian motorist. <\/p>\n
Now scientists are racing against time to save the bird\u2019s dwindling numbers from a roadkill crisis.<\/p>\n
Cassowaries draw so many tourists to Australia\u2019s north that some estimate their value to the local economy at A$1 million (\u00a3488,000) per bird \u2014 meaning the fatal running-over of 24 of them last year was costly in more ways than one.<\/p>\n
A trial using artificial intelligence to alert drivers to the birds, which can grow to 6ft 2in (1.9m) tall, has reduced the number of deaths on a Far North Queensland road by more than a third. <\/p>\n
Its success has raised hopes the technology can be adapted to recognise other species and cut Australia\u2019s annual roadkill death toll, which is estimated at ten million and believed to be the world\u2019s highest in relation to the human population.<\/p>\n
It is not just the animals that are at risk \u2014 more than 5 per cent of crashes killing a person in Australia are the result of an animal collision.<\/p>\n
Endemic to the lush tropical rain forests of Papua New Guinea and Australia\u2019s far northeast, the slow-moving cassowaries are especially vulnerable to vehicles as they cross roads in search of forest fruit. About 4,000 are believed to survive but numbers are falling, mostly due to collisions with vehicles.<\/p>\n
Scientists have trained AI to recognise wandering birds on one of Queensland\u2019s cassowary road hotspots, the Kennedy Highway at Kuranda, about 18 miles northwest of Cairns. A sensor system trained to recognise the birds sends signals to road signs when the cassowaries are detected, warning drivers to reduce speed.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHitting or swerving to miss a cassowary at speed can result in serious injury to both the driver and bird,\u201d said Darryl Jones, a road ecologist who co-ordinated the trial for the Queensland government. \u201cSlowing down by even a few kilometres per hour can substantially improve reaction time, braking distance and outcomes in the event of a crash.\u201d<\/p>\n
So successful has the technology been in cutting cassowary roadkill that scientists are training it to recognise other vulnerable species, such as koalas.<\/p>\n
While kangaroo carcasses litter outback roads on mainland Australia, it is the southern island state of Tasmania that is regarded as the world\u2019s roadkill capital.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s that mentality here that when you\u2019re travelling, that you just want to put your foot down,\u201d says Donald Knowler, a British expatriate who has observed and chronicled Tasmania\u2019s wildlife for more than two decades. \u201cAnd if animals get in the way, especially at night, it\u2019s dangerous to swerve and try and avoid them,\u201d says Knowler whose 2015 book, Riding the Devil\u2019s Highway, examined the island\u2019s roadkill crisis and found its intensity unprecedented.<\/p>\n
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Tasmanian devils are buffeted by disease and speeding drivers<\/p>\n
ALAMY<\/p>\n
Each year Tasmania\u2019s 400,000 licensed drivers are estimated to kill 300,000 mammals and birds on the island\u2019s roughly 11,000 miles of roads. The toll includes 3,000 Tasmanian devils, whose numbers are also suffering from the spread of a facial disease, and 15,000 wallabies.<\/p>\n
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