Air Sheppard: Using Drones to Stop Elephant & Rhino Poaching

[NeoGreen]

Found an interesting article at Treehugger:
http://www.treehugger.com/endangered-species/meet-drones-proven-stop-elephant-and-rhino-poaching.html

[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#339966; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #98fb98; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"] Meet the drones proven to stop elephant and rhino poaching [div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#ccffcc; border:1px solid #98fb98; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"] Air Shepherd is matching unmanned aerial vehicles with super computers to help rangers stop the slaughter – during tests in one area where 19 rhinos are typically killed monthly, there were zero deaths for 6 months.

Here are some desperately depressing numbers to consider: 40,000 elephants and over 1,200 rhinos were killed by poachers in 2014 – a rate that will lead both animals to extinction within 10 years if things don’t change. In the last half-dozen years there has been an exponential increase in the killing of these humble, majestic creatures. It’s getting worse and rangers are losing the war against poachers.

But a new approach using drones and big data may be able to put an end to the senseless slaughter.

The brains behind the brainstorm is the nonprofit organization, Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation and their program, Air Shepherd. Tests run by Nelson Mandela’s Peace Parks Foundation and UAV & Drone Solutions were so impressive and literally stopped poaching during trial runs. The Lindbergh Foundation then introduced the University of Maryland’s data analytic software which will be used to make the program even more effective.


Seems like a good (and successful) pilot program.

They have a Indiegogo crowd-funding effort:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/air-shepherd-drones-stop-elephant-rhino-poaching

I plan on reviewing the information and if apparently legitimate, I will make a donation.

Please REC & Kick, if you think this merits exposure on DU.

NG

[Judi Lynn]

1. Help is desperately needed for these helpless animals before they are completely destroyed. n/t