The World Wildlife Foundation has a new use for an old weapon in their fight against poachers. The drones that they once used in vane to scare away poachers are finding a better use – scaring the wildlife away from the poachers. Here’s the video:
A little under a year ago, Google hooked up the World Wildlife Foundation with a $5 million dollar grant as part of its Global Impact Awards – a program that provides support to organizations using technology and innovative approaches to address global issues. With this grant money, the WWF purchased a small fleet of surveillance drones. Their plan? Use them to create an advanced anti-poaching system.
And that’s exactly what they did. Using a combination of remote aerial survey systems, wildlife tagging technology, and advanced analytical software, the organization was able to help rangers more effectively patrol vulnerable areas like Asia and Africa. In theory, this was supposed to increase detection and deterrence of poachers, and it totally did – it just wasn’t very effective at stopping them. Essentially, the drones were great for getting pretty pictures of animals getting slaughtered and abducted, but not so great for catching the culprits.
