Latest news with #NewGuinean
The Star
10-06-2025
- Science
- The Star
Using AI to track hornbills in Malaysian jungles
FOR years, lecturer Dr Mehran Behjati and his wife would spend their weekends outdoors, taking to the bike trails and cycling into the remote areas and villages of Selangor, and even as far as Bukit Tinggi in Pahang, some 70km away from the Klang Valley. Armed with binoculars, they would keep a lookout for birds, particularly hornbills. 'For us, the hornbill is one of the most majestic birds we have ever seen. Every time I see this majestic bird in its environment, I'm fascinated. I'm excited to see them,' Behjati says during a recent interview at his office in Sunway University's Faculty of Engineering and Technology. Behjati, an enthusiastic birdwatcher, also knows that these magnificent creatures, like much of the wildlife in Malaysia, are increasingly losing their habitat due to deforestation and other factors. 'So I think, yeah, why not? We use technology to protect these animals. Most of the time, researchers are developing systems to help humans but not many researchers think about other species,' he says. With that in mind, Behjati has come up with a way to help not just his favourite hornbills but also other wildlife species. Using his knowledge of tiny machine learning (TinyML) and edge computing – which brings computing power closer to where the data is generated – he has put together a cost-effective, sustainable device to monitor these birds' presence in the dense Malaysian jungle. This is done by first recording their calls and then identifying the species by comparing those sounds against a database. Anyone who has hiked through our jungles will understand the challenges faced by wildlife researchers trying to identify calls amid the din of the forest, or even spotting a bird, what more with wildlife like hornbills which are shy and occupy the more dense areas of the jungle. The land of hornbills There are 10 species of the birds in Peninsular Malaysia, and eight in Sabah and Sarawak. Although globally there are 57 species of hornbills, Peninsular Malaysia is considered to be a stronghold for Asian hornbill species, trailing only behind Thailand and Indonesia, both of which have 13 species. At some sites, such as the Greater Ulu Muda Forest Complex in Kedah and the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex in Perak, all 10 hornbill species can be found in one spot. The Malaysian species includes the great hornbill, the rhinoceros hornbill, and the rare, frumpy-looking helmeted hornbill, valued by poachers for its heavy casque known as 'red ivory'. Dubbed 'farmers of the forest', hornbills play an important role in dispersing seeds, which is crucial for plant diversity. A study of Asian and New Guinean hornbills by the National University of Singapore in 2024 strongly suggests that large seeds are highly dependent on hornbills for their dispersal. However, deforestation from development has massively impacted the local hornbill population. Besides being ousted from their habitat, many hornbill species need tree cavities in which to nest and raise their young – and trees are disappearing. Behjati, who has worked on various environmental monitoring and protection projects in Malaysia over the past decade – including one at Tasik Chini, Pahang – knows how challenging things can get for researchers. 'In Malaysia's dense rainforests, traditional environmental and wildlife monitoring methods – like manual surveys, remote camera traps, or conventional wireless sensor networks – often fall short. 'These approaches can be expensive, labour-intensive, invasive, and impractical in remote and hard to reach areas,' he points out. But thanks to recent innovations in embedded systems, artificial intelligence (AI), and advanced wireless technologies like 5G and 6G, we now have the essential tools to build low-power, autonomous, and sustainable devices that can 'listen' or 'see' without disturbing or intruding on the environment. 'These intelligent systems can detect animal behaviours, track ecological changes, and deliver real-time insights to researchers – all with minimal human intervention. 'This will empower ecologists, conservationists, and policymakers to make faster, more informed decisions to safeguard endangered ecosystems.' Smart networks Originally from Iran, Behjati has been based in Malaysia for 15 years, lecturing at Sunway with expertise in, among others, wireless communications, nonterrestrial networks, Internet of Things (IoT), edge intelligence, and TinyML. Behjati focuses his research on designing intelligent systems for real-world applications, particularly in the areas of environmental monitoring, smart cities, and digital inclusion. He explains that while most Malaysians would know AI by the popular large language models like ChatGPT, Deepseek, and Gemini that can generate text or images or answer questions, these cannot be applied to real world conservation efforts. 'Why not? Because they are power hungry. They are a centralised system, they rely on Internet connectivity,' he says. While such AI models can be used to implement, say, an air quality monitoring system in Kuala Lumpur where there's telecommunication infrastructure to transmit data captured by sensors to a centralised machine learning system, this is not possible in remote areas where there's no data network or even electricity. The other limitation, says Behjati, is that centralised AI is power hungry, consuming a huge amount of energy to maintain algorithms. 'When it comes to implementing these devices in remote areas, then we need to provide a power source as well. This is very challenging. 'So these limitations are the main reasons that we can't use AI to support conservation efforts,' he says. Behjati with part of the device that will help monitor hornbills in Malaysia's dense, difficult to penetrate jungles. — ONG SOON HIN/The Star But with TinyML, according to Behjati, there's actually a paradigm shift, as it allows AI models to be run directly on ultra small microcontrollers – devices no bigger than a matchbox. Hence the term tiny machine learning. Microcontrollers are small computers on a single integrated circuit chip that are designed for specific tasks. Examples of microcontrollers are the Arduino Nano 33 BLE, which can cost anywhere between RM115 and RM140, a tiny fraction of the cost of a Nvidia AI chip. For Behjati, the hornbill conservation project began with the collection of real-world audio samples of hornbill calls from open source bird sound archives like Xeno-Canto. These recordings were then digitally cleaned up and processed to extract distinct acoustic features using a method called mel-frequency energy, which effectively captures an acoustic 'fingerprint' of each bird's call. 'Next, we trained a lightweight yet powerful AI model – a 1D Convolutional Neural Network – to recognise and classify the calls of five hornbill species: the Oriental pied hornbill, black hornbill, white-crowned hornbill, rhinoceros hornbill, and bushy-crested hornbill. 'After compressing and optimising the model, we deployed it onto the Arduino Nano, a low-power microcontroller equipped with an onboard microphone,' Behjati explains. By bringing intelligence to the 'edge', where data is collected, the system can function independently, detecting, classifying, and recording wildlife activity in real time, without the need for Internet access or external servers. Once installed in the field, the device continuously listens to its surroundings and identifies hornbill calls in real time, without relying on Internet connectivity or cloud processing. Behjati has detailed the research in a paper titled 'Edge Intelligence for Wildlife Conservation: Real-Time Hornbill Call Classification Using TinyML', co-authored with fellow Sunway University researcher Kong Ka Hing, and published in April; it is accessible via the open access repository arXiv, as well as Behjati's blog. Proof of concept Ultimately, Behjati believes that the system he developed is not limited to saving any particular wildlife and can be applied to broader realms of ecological conservation. The first phase of the project, the proof of concept which corresponds to universal Technology Readiness Level 4, has already been successfully completed. In this phase, the system was successfully tested under simulated forest conditions, confirming its technical feasibility and reliability. 'We are now preparing for broader field deployments in collaboration with local conservation groups and ecologists,' he says, adding that they are especially keen to partner with biodiversity researchers and NGOs that are actively involved in hornbill conservation to scale up the initiative. 'Our long-term goal is to establish a network of these intelligent listening nodes across protected forest areas, enabling continuous, real-time monitoring of hornbill activity. 'By developing a solution that is low-cost, energy-efficient, and open to collaboration, we aim to complement and amplify the important work already being done by Malaysia's environmental community, particularly in biodiversity hotspots such as Taman Negara, Bukit Tinggi [in Pahang], and Sabah and Sarawak, where hornbill habitats face increasing threats,' says Behjati. It's about time that smart technology in the field of conservation in Malaysia takes flight.
Irish Daily Mirror
22-05-2025
- Science
- Irish Daily Mirror
Giant rat nearly three feet long discovered by stunned scientist
A gigantic rat species, stretching over 2.5 feet in length, has been found residing in the lofty mountains of Papua New Guinea. Called the subalpine woolly rat, this enormous creature has razor-sharp teeth, dense fur and claws measuring a whopping three inches – and it's been snapped for the first time ever, according to MailOnline. Incredible footage captures the woolly rat darting along a tree limb under the cover of darkness, presumably on the prowl for its next meal, reports The Mirror. But fear not, those of you dreading bedtime – this mammoth rodent won't be found anywhere near Ireland - it calls the steep, craggy peaks of Mount Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea home. The find is credited to Frantisek Vejmelka, a scientist from the Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic. "It's astonishing that such a large and striking animal has remained so poorly studied. How much more is there to discover about the biodiversity of tropical mountains?" he said. Up until this point, the giant rodent – known scientifically as Mallomys istapantap – was only recognised from a handful of museum exhibits, initially described back in 1989, and had evaded wild sightings for 30 years. However, during an extensive six-month field trip, Mr Vejmelka, collaborating with indigenous tribes, managed to secure both photographic and video evidence of this secretive creature in its natural surroundings. Researchers placed camera traps approximately 12,000ft up Mount Wilhelm, which has a summit of 14,793ft. The cameras captured the rat's movements through misty forests and grasslands. Measuring 2.7 feet in length, including its tail, and weighing nearly 2kg, the subalpine woolly rat is significantly larger than its brown rat cousin, which grows to 11 inches and weighs 200-300g. The woolly rat is comparable in length to a domestic cat, which typically weighs between 3.6 to 4.5kg and measures around 2.3 feet in length. The study gathered crucial data on the rat's diet, parasites, activity patterns, and movement, providing valuable insights into a species that has remained hidden for so long. The nocturnal creature leads a secretive life, climbing trees at night, hiding in burrows or treetops by day, and feeding exclusively on plants. The findings, published in the journal Mammalia, mark a significant advancement in understanding the mysterious mammals of New Guinea's remote mountains. "These are the first specimen records in 30 years for this spectacular mammal poorly known to science," said Mr Vejmelka, crediting the local tribes for their assistance in the discovery. "Camera trap images and video, as well as photographs of the habitat and hunting with indigenous people, deepen our understanding of the activity patterns, locomotion, diet, intrageneric elevational partitioning, and behavioural ecology of the woolly rats." These New Guinean woolly rats, along with the giant cloud rats of the Philippines, are the largest rodents in the murine family and have evolved over five million years on rainforest-covered mountain slopes - untouched by competing mammals. However, despite its impressive size, the subalpine woolly rat isn't the biggest rat out there. The title of the largest rat goes to the Gambian pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus), which can grow up to 3ft long - with its tail making up half of that length. Also in contention is the Malagasy giant rat (Hypogeomys antimena) from Madagascar, which reaches around 2ft. Yet, none of today's rodents quite match up to prehistoric giants like Josephoartigasia monesi or Phoberomys pattersoni - now extinct - which once roamed the Earth as part of the planet's long-lost megafauna. These larger-than-life beasts likely became extinct due to climate changes, environmental shifts, and human hunting. But the recent discovery of the subalpine woolly rat proves that the world still harbours plenty of hidden giants - and not all of them are confined to legend.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Elusive woolly rat photographed for the first time
New Guinea's subalpine woolly rat is the rodent of legends. Mallomys istapantap was first described in 1989, but even then the descriptions were only gleaned from examining historical museum material. The last recorded sighting of the fuzzy rodent 30 years ago failed to yield any photographic evidence, but after six months scouring the jungles of New Guinea, one researcher has finally documented one of the world's most elusive mammals. The New Guinean woolly rat doesn't make itself easy to find, but Czech Academy of Sciences doctoral candidate František Vejmělka recently managed to make history with the help of local guides. 'If it weren't for the indigenous hunters who accompanied me in the mountains and helped me locate the animals, I would never have been able to collect this data,' Vejmělka said in a statement. Vejmělka collaborated with multiple local tribes to survey the region around Papua New Guinea's highest peak, Mount Wilhelm (14,793 ft). Along the way he documented and genetically identified 61 species of non-flying rodents and marsupials, but it was his firsthand encounters with the woolly rat that stood out from the rest. The murine rodent lives in the region's remote, steep highlands at elevations around 12,000 feet. They only emerge at night to feed on plant matter and spend their days in underground burrows or high in the tree canopies. Vejmělka's documentation published last month in the journal Mammalia notes the thick-furred woolly rats measure about 2.78-feet long including their tail, weigh around 4.4 lbs, and feature 3-inch paws. Despite their moderate size, the university announcement describes the animal as a 'striking and formidable creature.' While tropical biodiversity across Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia is well-studied, the Australasian regions remain largely unstudied. Collaborating with local indigenous communities to find and document animals such as the woolly rat is crucial to help strengthen biodiversity and conservation efforts, and what is needed to protect them from outside threats. 'It's astonishing that such a large and striking animal has remained so poorly studied,' said Vejmělka. 'How much more is there to discover about the biodiversity of tropical mountains?'
Scottish Sun
21-05-2025
- Science
- Scottish Sun
Massive ‘giant woolly RAT' triple the size of regular rodent found as enormous creatures dubbed ‘largest in the world'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A RARE species of giant woolly rat has been documented in photos and video footage for the first time ever. The elusive, nocturnal Subalpine Woolly Rat, or Mallomys istapantap, can be found high up in the mountains of New Guinea. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 The species was last recorded 30 years ago and had never before been photographed until now Credit: František Vejmělka 3 Its nocturnal habits - and the inaccessibility of its habitat - have made it extremely difficult to observe in the wild Credit: František Vejmělka New Guinean Woolly rats are some of the largest murine rodents in the world - and are triple the size of the average rodent in the UK or US. Despite its total length of 85cm, 8cm-long paws, and body weight of roughly 2kg - the giant woolly rat has evaded researchers for decades. The species was last recorded 30 years ago and had never before been photographed until now. František Vejmělka, a Czech doctoral candidate from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the University of South Bohemia, is the first person to scientifically document the Subalpine Woolly Rat in the wild. With help from several local tribes, Vejmělka was able to document the rare species while on a six-month expedition from the base to the summit of Mount Wilhelm - the highest peak in Papua New Guinea at 4,509m high. "It's astonishing that such a large and striking animal has remained so poorly studied," said Vejmělka. "How much more is there to discover about the biodiversity of tropical mountains?" The creatures are typically found in regions up to 3,700metres high. Its nocturnal habits - and the inaccessibility of its habitat - have made it extremely difficult to observe in the wild. And until now, the Subalpine Woolly Rat was known to science only from a handful of museum specimens. Vejmělka documentation means scientists now have biometric measurements of the creatures. They also have knowledge other aspects of its lifestyle, such as the animal's diet, parasites that affect them, and activity patterns. The shaggy-furred rat climbs trees at night, hides in underground burrows or tree canopies during the day, and feeds exclusively on plant matter. "If it weren't for the indigenous hunters who accompanied me in the mountains and helped me locate the animals," said Vejmělka. "I would never have been able to collect this data."
