The Ol Pejeta Conservancy in northern Kenya, together with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and Airware, the makers of a platform for commercial drone development, is testing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drones, in support of wildlife conservation.
For two weeks in December, a dedicated three-man team from Airware in the US travelled to Kenya to carry out a series of intensive, in-the-field tests of a prototype.
Following these tests, the Aerial Ranger is being moulded specifically to observe, track and protect wildlife. The drone has the capacity to deliver real-time video and thermal imaging feeds to a team on the ground. This means that day or night, the Aerial Ranger will be able to respond to poaching incidents in the field, sending live footage back to rangers who can help deploy resources in the most efficient way possible.
In the future, footage of an incident recorded from the drone may also be used to identify offending individuals, who often live nearby, and can be held up as evidence in court. The deterrent factor alone could have a significant impact on poaching incidents.
The Aerial Ranger will also be able to support Ol Pejeta's Ecological Monitoring Department, which conducts a wildlife census once a year, requiring 13 hours of light aircraft time at $220 (R2 397) an hour. The Aerial Ranger could be used to perform the census in less time, at minimal cost. The censuses could be conducted monthly, providing experts with valuable and more reliable data about the Laikipia ecosystem.
To avoid the need for Ol Pejeta to employ full-time pilots and engineers, Airware has developed a simple digital mapping interface that can be controlled by someone with no pilot training.
The conservancy is East Africa's largest Black rhino sanctuary and spends the majority of its budget and human resources trying to protect rhino and other at-risk species. Kenya lost 50 rhino to poachers last year.
