The drone and tagging system to save Rhino in Africa via Kenya: Stakes and Opportunities
In fact the drone and
tagging system allows the conservancy to monitor the wellbeing of the wildlife,
and to create a ton of data on animal movements and behavior.
According to the promoters, phase
one of the project is to get one drone out of the workshop in the US and up and
working at Ol Pejeta in Kenya. And phase two is to extend the drone fleet and
wildlife tagging program.
The conservancy contains 4 of
the last 7 Northern White rhino in existence, a number of other endangered
species, and the 'Big Five' (lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino).
The teams urgently need aerial support so that they can ensure they are
covering the areas most at risk.
We also learn that:
‘’Unmanned Innovation Inc. will provide a customized drone using their
proprietary autopilot system combined with a commercailly available plane
developed for tornado research at the University of Colorado
The drones
are fitted with a live streaming HD camera, which is gimbal mounted for 360o
remote controlled viewing.Sony HD Block camera with 20x optical zoom for
up-close imaging
The rhino
and other endangered species will be chipped with radio frequency ID (RFID)
tags. Each chip gives an animal a unique identification number tied to our
databases.
Initial
testing will be done using commercially available RFID tags
Sensors on
the drones can then recognize individual animals and
use on-board GPS to store an image tagged with location coordinates.’’
