Artificial intelligence is helping the study of seal numbers at a protected Scottish site by drastically cutting how long it takes to assess data.
Newburgh beach in Aberdeenshire is home to hundreds of grey seals.
Marine biologist and PHD student Claire Stainfield has been using drone footage to monitor and count the mammals, with the aim of assessing if tourist numbers have an impact on the population.
She said processing the data from the drone would normally have taken her hours, but she is now using an AI tool to do the same job in just seconds. She hopes it can also be used in other areas of ecology.
The Ythan Estuary at Newburgh beach became a designated seal haul-out site in 2017.
