The security costs of preventing poaching are a disproportionate strain on conservation budgets and new solutions must be found to make it viable in the long run.
That is why Welgevonden teamed up with MTN and Wageningen University in Wageningen‚ The Netherlands‚ to use sensors to track the movement‚ acceleration and body temperature of 117 animals in the 37,000 hectare game reserve. They used the data to determine a baseline of what was normal and abnormal behaviour for the animals so that their sensors would alert park management if they were threatened.
“Any animal can be used. All of them tell us a different story about what is going on. The most important thing is that we have learned through computer algorithm development what is abnormal behaviour and what is normal behaviour‚” said professor Herbert Prins from Wageningen University.
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