High Tech Tools that Prevent Poaching
Demand for exquisite household pets such as cheetahs, as well as adornments such as elephant tusks, coveted tonics such as tiger bone wine, folk medicine such as ground rhino horn for rheumatism, continue to condemn some of the world's most personable animals to a gruesome fate. Poaching and organized crime continue to push vulnerable species to extinction, but regulators are trying to fight back with the help of cutting-edge technology.
1. Advanced analytics and mapping
For 3 months, the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) plan, financed by Google Ideas, monitored aired, published, and digital media from around the world to model wildlife crime. As a consequence, users can view content on rhino poaching in Africa, elk slaughtering in Canada, wild animal trafficking in Croatia, and overfishing in Brazil via an interactive map. Correspondingly, the HealthMap Wildlife Trade application contains official accounts to predict changes in wildlife crime in order to recognize critical topographic pinch points along the illegal animal trade network, allowing the criminal justice system to apprehend traffickers.
2. Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) and CyberTracker?
This open source software package, which is now in use in 120 protected areas across 27 countries, incorporates information from ranger surveillance, analyses native poaching patterns, and monitors progress in enforcement agencies to assist rangers in improving their efficacy in countering wildlife crime. The method combines local expertise of animal behaviour and movement patterns to fully understand local ecosystems through a collaboration with the community CyberTracker, which has produced a portable device to obtain the understanding of indigenous trackers.
3. Virtual Watch Room
Marine reserves could be hard to observe and enforce in distant corners of the planet, where most of earth's remaining near-pristine waterways can be located. The Virtual Watch Room is meant to store and cross-reference large volumes of information because then, when combined, the findings can quickly and cost-effectively recognize suspicious vessel activities. Satellite imagery, maritime and other specialty records, multinational fishing and maritime reserve limits, and oceanographic statistics such as depths and temperature are among the information sources. To detect vessels that are not broadcasting their coordinates, the software can engage the most suitable surveillance mechanism.
4. Drones
Drones have indeed been playing a crucial role for environmentalists and park rangers who wish to thwart poaching as the expense of these high-tech equipment has dropped and they have grown simpler to use. Drones have already been deployed to safeguard endangered animals in Kenya, Nepal, and the ocean, including whales. The World Wildlife Fund received $5 million from Google's Global Impact Awards, which will be used to fund technologies that would aid conservation programs, such as aerial surveillance drones. Having eyes in the skies, particularly on a small and silent vehicle, is a huge help for conservation teams.
领英推荐
5. GPS Collars
Save the Elephants employs Google Earth and elephant GPS-monitoring tags to track the motions of herds, recording not just their position but also their speed. They can use the near-real-time data to identify if an animal or herd appears to be fleeing from poachers, or if a creature has stopped moving and may have been poached. When an elephant's actions are unexpected, the crew gets alerts on their portable devices, advising them when to pay close attention and where to go to inspect.?Not only is the NGO utilising Google Earth to follow wildlife movement as well as providing assistance on the ground, but it is also utilising it to deliver high-quality statistics to the general public.
6. Arribada Initiative
Tagging turtles is both costly and logistically difficult. However, a new collaboration between ZSL and the Arribada Initiative has resulted in affordable, less invasive tracking that enables conservation groups to track turtles in the marine environment, evaluate threats to turtles off the coast of West Africa's Principe Island, and learn how problems like plastic pollution influence their attitudes. In a watertight container, each tag houses a Raspberry Pi computer, a lens, and a power control board. Conventional surveillance systems can cost up to $3,000, while these only cost $300. Tags record video clips at predetermined intervals and are fastened to turtles through a bottom plate with a quick-release measure to reduce stress. Investigators were able to observe male and female turtles' interpersonal relationships, as well as their eating, hunting, and resting patterns.
7. Tagging and Sensors
Parks use tracking devices to monitor and manage wildlife. Collars, on the other hand, can be large, and placing GPS/GSM devices in an animal's horns or skin might be intrusive. Tagging has become easier thanks to longer battery life and cheaper, lightweight solutions. In Zimbabwe, an initiative led by the Sigfox Foundation is now being tested. Sensors the equivalent size of a finger are implanted inside the rhino's horn by vets. The sensor sends out consistent signals and has a five-year battery life. To deter poachers from manipulating the systems and finding the creatures, protocols are encoded. By establishing a virtual geographical border, geofencing works in tandem with location data. Authorities are notified if an animal moves across it to a potentially dangerous location. An accelerometer will be used in the next iterations to track how the animal moves rather than where it is.
Conclusion
Alternatives will take time to pick up on, and wildlife conservation authorities are struggling to cope with keeping track of vast national parks. Astrophysicist Claire Burke of Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom is assisting them by using infrared imaging that detect thermal energy to track animals in the bush. According to research, technological advancements have already aided in the reduction of poaching in Africa. According to WWF, the number of black and white rhinoceros – the continent's 2 Rhino varieties, which are listed as species at risk, respectively?has increased over the years.