To stop the massacre of elephants conservation groups, including the Elephant Advocacy League, are fighting poachers with eye-in-the-sky drones.
These unmanned aerial vehicles are giving rangers new tools in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade of not only ivory but also rhinos, hides from tigers and other big cats.
The World Wildlife Fund will start testing a new drone surveillance program in Namibia next month that aims to coordinate data from the air and ground to give park rangers an edge over poachers, according to Crawford Allan, director of the Fund’s TRAFFIC North America project.
A group called Conservation Drones has also been working with independent researchers at 15 to 20 sites around the globe to help them track wildlife better and develop information that could help them stop poaching. They have worked to monitor rhinos in a national park in Nepal and count orangutan nests in the dense jungles of Sumatra, Indonesia.
Photo: Conservation Drones
