UAVs for Anti Poaching

I work in a wildlife reserve in South Africa. Poaching is an ever-present threat. The ONLY way I can see UAV's working in anti-poaching is for it to act as a deterrent by VISIBLY and NOISILY patrolling the area by air. And this is only for casual/subsistence poachers who put out snares or hunt small game on foot/with dogs and for the opportunists that try for Rhino. The organised crime-affiliated ones are another story, going mostly for rhino horn ($60 000 a kg) and elephant ivory (they have used helicopters at night in the past) - they will laugh at a UAV (...unless it has GUNS!).

Poachers also adapt very quickly. A poacher can hide from a UAV very easily by just going behind or under a bush and unless you have very expensive FLIR equipment and know exactly where to look in thousands of square miles of bush your chances are almost nil of seeing him never-mind catching him. A poaching camp can be camouflaged just as easily, poachers can hop back over the fence in minutes and disappear into the surrounding communities. Snares are impossible to see from the air. Video from the air is too low a resolution to be effective to see a human in the bush (I fly FPV - I know), even full HD is no match for a human eye - and getting full HD to the ground is a bit expensive. You'll need rugged aircraft, trained flight/observation personnel, trained maintenance personnel and almost permanent good weather - the bush is a harsh, unforgiving environment.

I'd love to use a UAV to try curb poaching but I'm sorry I don't believe it'll work.

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JerryBerry March 16, 2012 at 6:43am

But how about this project?

http://www.lianpinkoh.com/drones.html

This guy seems to exactly do what I'm aiming at.
Jeff Olijar March 16, 2012 at 2:18am

design a small sat phone with gps that is solar powered and attach it to the elephants and rhinos that can detect gunshots and call for help. don't track the hunter, track the prey and you find the hunter. Sure if you base the trigger off of gunshots its too late for the animal but depending on your response time you could capture the poacher... just my $0.02
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Graham Dyer March 16, 2012 at 12:07am

I work in a wildlife reserve in South Africa. Poaching is an ever-present threat. The ONLY way I can see UAV's working in anti-poaching is for it to act as a deterrent by VISIBLY and NOISILY patrolling the area by air. And this is only for casual/subsistence poachers who put out snares or hunt small game on foot/with dogs and for the opportunists that try for Rhino. The organised crime-affiliated ones are another story, going mostly for rhino horn ($60 000 a kg) and elephant ivory (they have used helicopters at night in the past) - they will laugh at a UAV (...unless it has GUNS!).

Poachers also adapt very quickly. A poacher can hide from a UAV very easily by just going behind or under a bush and unless you have very expensive FLIR equipment and know exactly where to look in thousands of square miles of bush your chances are almost nil of seeing him never-mind catching him. A poaching camp can be camouflaged just as easily, poachers can hop back over the fence in minutes and disappear into the surrounding communities. Snares are impossible to see from the air. Video from the air is too low a resolution to be effective to see a human in the bush (I fly FPV - I know), even full HD is no match for a human eye - and getting full HD to the ground is a bit expensive. You'll need rugged aircraft, trained flight/observation personnel, trained maintenance personnel and almost permanent good weather - the bush is a harsh, unforgiving environment.

I'd love to use a UAV to try curb poaching but I'm sorry I don't believe it'll work.

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UAVs for Anti Poaching

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