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Smart tech to protect wild animals - 17th March 2023

Poaching animals is a massive problem for park rangers, particularly in Africa's national reserves. A new smart camera system, created by Dutch company Hack the Planet, may provide a solution.

Thijs Suijten, an engineer, explains how the smart cameras communicate with a minicomputer and an artificial intelligence (AI) system, with immediate effect.

Thijs Suijten: "And this minicomputer downloads the images from the camera and then uses artificial intelligence to automatically classify whether there's an animal, an elephant or human on the photo. And then we use the satellite modem to send that information through space directly to the phones of rangers within minutes."

This smart system operates in real time, which means it is a vast improvement on the system in use. Currently, rangers have to visit the camera traps twice a year to replace the batteries and download the data from the camera cards.

Eight of these devices were put to work in Gabon in 2021, where the focus was on human-elephant conflict.

Thijs Suijten: "It's where elephants more and more break into plantations of local farmers and destroying plantations and taking away the livelihood of local people. And there we deployed this system, eight of these cameras, to create an early warning system so that rangers and locals know elephants are approaching a village."

Having identified a wild elephant, the system instructs loud speakers to blast out loud noises, scaring the animal away at once.

The photographic equipment is also environment-friendly as it runs on solar energy.

The cameras are just one of the tools in the war against poachers. Hack the Planet has also come up with a cell phone sensor, which can spot nearby SIM cards – in remote locations this often shows that criminals are present. Having been tried out in the Netherlands, Gabon and Slovenia, these are now being put to good use in anti-poaching efforts.