According to Nature's report, in a joint research effort by Catalonia Technical University and Mamiraua Sustainable Development Institute, scientists aimed to monitor the movements of two endangered dolphin species. They provided data to an artificial neural network to detect the sounds of dolphins in the Amazon River. Researchers placed microphones in the Mamiraua reserve located in the north of Brazil to listen to the dolphins' sounds. They fed the sound recordings to an artificial neural network capable of classifying sounds in real-time, similar to the human brain, in order to separate dolphin sounds from background noises.
The artificial intelligence technology, developed to distinguish rain, boat engine, and dolphin sounds, provided scientists with the ability to monitor dolphin movements.
The study's capability of determining dolphin locations was noted to serve the conservation of these creatures. Scientists pointed out that the population of Humpback dolphins in the estuary decreases by 50% every nine years, and the Pink river dolphin population decreases by 50% every ten years. Identifying dolphin locations would facilitate taking measures to enable "coexistence of local communities and dolphins."
