Ars Technica: WWF turns to drones in bid to tackle poaching

WWF-Nepal-UAV-640x425.jpgThe World Wildlife Fund is turning to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a bid to tackle an upsurge in illegal poaching of rhinos, elephants and tigers carried out by increasingly sophisticated and well-equipped cartels. The WWF provided two hand-launchable UAVs to the government of Nepal in 2012. In December, Google awarded the organization $5 million to develop more advanced UAV systems. It is hoped that these systems will reduce the poaching of endangered mammals and save the lives of the park rangers assigned to protect them. Ars spoke to WWF's Crawford Allan to learn more the UAV system, dubbed SMART, that is now in development.

Read full article at: Ars Technica

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  • Hi Lian, you already have a project in Brazil?

    In our group BRAZILIAN GROUP DRONE this is our idea, as you and Serge develop in conservationdrone.org

    Would like to know your opinion

    Conservationdrone.org
  • Sergio, keep us updated on the Brazil project!

  • is an encouragement.

    is a great job, we are developing a similar job in Brazil, with the help of the staff conservationdrone.org, Lian and Serge.

    Thanks guys !

    Conservationdrone.org
  • Moderator

    Stories like this are incentive for me.  I believe there are plenty of opportunities in the US where resources (animal and planet) monitoring could be effective.  Being able to launch a large hobby sized UAV in the highlands of Montana used to monitor or collect data on national forest, water/glacier, or wildlife like Elk, Moose, Grizzles or Wolverine from a great distance is far better than implanting a person directly into their environment.  Stories like this, showing successful civilian usage of UAVs is what we need the public to read and endorse.

    BZ guys, keep up the great work.

  • 100KM

    Poaching is a big time business which generated huge illegal money. Our hobby grade UAV limited by payload and endurance, may not very effective to tackle them. But it will be a good way to explore what potential of low cost UAV can integrate to the whole monitoring system.

    I may disagree with Jesse regarding arm UAV. This type of things belong to military and cost multi million. Animal protection is not a battle field.

    In my own opinion, An uav capable of 5 Kg payload with 2 to 3 hours endurance covering 30 KM range , equip with thermal camera and send back live video may be suitable for monitor operation and technology is available.

  • Now this is a truly great cause and one UAV's can certainly help out with immensely. Illegal poaching is such a huge problem, and trying to catch them has been very difficult. There is such a large area to cover, and relatively few man resources. You can't help but get angry when you read about or watch documentaries on what is going on down there... it's just so sad. I really think armed UAV's against these poaches would be valid.

  • Very cool...
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