Drones Are Helping Catch Poachers Operating Under Cover of Darkness

Catching a wildlife poacher in the act is a tricky business. Just ask the officials and groups who have spent decades and millions of dollars searching for criminal animal hunters and traders operating covertly from South Africa to China. Their work is complicated by several factors, from government corruption that foils anti-poaching efforts to extreme poverty that draws people into the industry in the first place. But there’s also the simple issue of darkness. Poachers tend to go about their illicit business under cover of night, and it’s hard to find people among millions of square miles of pitch-black forest. “Eighty percent of poaching happens under the cover of darkness.” says Otto Werdmuller Von Elgg, the head of a pioneering group of conservationists, entrepreneurs and researchers called Air Shepherd. His team is using a high-tech combination of airborne drones and artificial intelligence (AI) to find poachers at night, tipping the scales in conservationists’ favor. “We’re going to take the nighttime back,” he adds. Air Shepherd has worked in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Malawi; it’s about to launch in Botswana as well. Air Shepherd drone tracking suspected poachers Stopping or even just slowing poachers could have big benefits for the countries where they operate. Residents of such countries often depend on wildlife to support the local economy, in part by attracting tourists who want to see animals like elephants...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Drones Source Type: news