Greater Kruger National Park Deploys UAS to Hunt Rhino Poachers
Sjekk video her: http://tinyurl.com/p67dywc
The Daily Telegraph witnessed the first flight of an Unmanned Aircraft System in pursuit of suspected poachers in South Africa.
The small, lightweight, battery-powered Falcons can be launched by hand in minutes and fly over a range of five miles for up to 90 minutes. Fitted with high-resolution infrared cameras, they can pick out elephants, rhinos and lions as well as anyone that might be tracking them.
Their operators use statistical analysis of when and where previous rhino killings took place to direct the UAS and position the rangers close to poaching “hot spots”.
When suspected hunters are identified, those tracking them can be prepared with the knowledge of how many they are facing and if they are armed. Once arrests are made, they will have video footage to put before the courts.
Those behind the project hope that by using the controversial technology, they can help turn the tide in the battle against poachers and a £6.6 billion wildlife trafficking industry which, it is now claimed, could be fuelling terrorism. In December, the US upgraded wildlife trafficking to a national security threat amid reports poaching helps fund, among others, al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.
In South Africa, home to most of the continent’s rhinos, the war against poachers is being lost. Since 2007, with a growing middle class in China, Vietnam and Thailand buying ground rhino horn to treat ailments including “devil possession” and cancer, rhino deaths have rocketed by 3,000 per cent.
The country’s flagship national park, the Kruger, has lost more than 50 per cent of its rhinos since 2010. The national army has been sent to help rangers take the poachers on and there are almost daily reports of violent gun battles and mounting human casualties along with the rhinos.
In 2011, 448 South African rhinos were killed. So far this year, 350 have died and it is projected the toll will reach 750 by December.
There are now fears that with the army making poaching more difficult in the state-owned section of Kruger, they will step up their activities in the privately-owned conservancies to the west, home to some of the country’s last black rhinos.
Twenty minutes later, Mr Miser’s aircraft soared into the air with the aid of a bungee cord attached to a thorn tree.
As it climbed upwards, its wings turned orange by the setting sun, Mr Miser and the rangers gathered around his laptop balanced on the back of a pickup truck.
“That’s us there, there’s a giraffe and I think that’s a herd of impala,” Miser, a former US Air Force engineer who maintained UAS during the Iraq war, pointed out to his audience on a small screen displaying the aircraft’s infrared view.
The aircraft can scan the ground to a resolution of 3cm – “we could do a count of your guinea fowl population while we’re up here,” he added.
But of the poachers, there was no sign. “They took their shoes off so we couldn’t track which way they went, and they’re probably over the fence by now,” said Craig Spencer, Oliphants West’s Chief Warden.
A veteran of the South African bush wars, Mr Spencer said his military training was fast becoming more important than his anthropological education.
“Many of these guys are former Mozambican rebel fighters who come over the 250-mile border to the east,” he said. “They’re carrying R5 assault rifles that you can only get from the South African military. They booby-trap rhino carcasses. Some suspects stopped recently were carrying AK47s but also had bodyguards with them.
“Every time this war rears its ugly head, we take our old rusty tool box out of the shed. We polish our tools, give them bigger badges and pay them bigger salaries but we need to keep ahead of the game. We need to use technology. I have nine people to defend 10,000 hectares. If we try to fight it using the same rusty old toolbox, we are going to lose. This UAS has the potential to become the most valuable tool we have.”
The idea to use UAS in anti-poaching is not unique – several have been tested in other parts of South Africa and Kenya. But military technology comes with a price tag, and some governments are nervous about allowing its unrestricted use within their airspace.
Mr Miser has sought to solve this by using civilian materials for the Falcon and making the aircraft short-range. Critically for such remote areas, it can been operated by the average ranger and is easily repairable.
The aircraft itself costs $15,000 (£10,000) and $23,000 with the cost of the camera, ground control equipment and training factored in – roughly equal to one ranger’s annual salary. ”This will do the job of at least 10 rangers on the ground and make the ones you do have more effective,” he said. “The UAS can also work for its money by helping with animal counts and mapping.”
In the vast landscapes of the Greater Kruger National Park, even aerial searches can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Enter Dr Tom Snitch, a former arms adviser to US President Ronald Reagan and University of Maryland mathematical modeller who also works for the UN’s Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System.
Just as advertisers target consumers online with products they will like most based on Google searches and their Facebook status updates, Dr Snitch will look at where rhinos like to graze, where they were killed before, the phases of the moon, the weather, the time of day and day of week to determine where and when poachers will strike next.
“We can put all these variables into the computer and come out with algorithms,” he said. “You can’t fly over the whole park but by creating this mathematical model, you can fly over the hot spots and when you see people coming two and a half kilometres out, you have time to get your rangers in position.”
Dr Snitch’s models have previously been used to catch those laying roadside bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as arsonists in US cities. He believes that coupling them with a UAS offers a unique solution.
Photo: Falcon designer Chris Miser – Aislinn Laing for the Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph witnessed the first flight of an Unmanned Aircraft System in pursuit of suspected poachers in South Africa.
The small, lightweight, battery-powered Falcons can be launched by hand in minutes and fly over a range of five miles for up to 90 minutes. Fitted with high-resolution infrared cameras, they can pick out elephants, rhinos and lions as well as anyone that might be tracking them.
Their operators use statistical analysis of when and where previous rhino killings took place to direct the UAS and position the rangers close to poaching “hot spots”.
When suspected hunters are identified, those tracking them can be prepared with the knowledge of how many they are facing and if they are armed. Once arrests are made, they will have video footage to put before the courts.
Those behind the project hope that by using the controversial technology, they can help turn the tide in the battle against poachers and a £6.6 billion wildlife trafficking industry which, it is now claimed, could be fuelling terrorism. In December, the US upgraded wildlife trafficking to a national security threat amid reports poaching helps fund, among others, al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.
In South Africa, home to most of the continent’s rhinos, the war against poachers is being lost. Since 2007, with a growing middle class in China, Vietnam and Thailand buying ground rhino horn to treat ailments including “devil possession” and cancer, rhino deaths have rocketed by 3,000 per cent.
The country’s flagship national park, the Kruger, has lost more than 50 per cent of its rhinos since 2010. The national army has been sent to help rangers take the poachers on and there are almost daily reports of violent gun battles and mounting human casualties along with the rhinos.
In 2011, 448 South African rhinos were killed. So far this year, 350 have died and it is projected the toll will reach 750 by December.
There are now fears that with the army making poaching more difficult in the state-owned section of Kruger, they will step up their activities in the privately-owned conservancies to the west, home to some of the country’s last black rhinos.
When the Falcon’s creator Chris Miser arrived at Olifants West conservancy at the foot of the Klein Drakensberg mountains of Limpopo last weekend, he planned to run some simple test flights to get used to the bushy terrain.
These were abandoned when a call came through on Saturday afternoon from a neighbouring reserve that two of their rangers had been shot at by suspected poachers – one taking a bullet in his hand-held radio.Twenty minutes later, Mr Miser’s aircraft soared into the air with the aid of a bungee cord attached to a thorn tree.
As it climbed upwards, its wings turned orange by the setting sun, Mr Miser and the rangers gathered around his laptop balanced on the back of a pickup truck.
“That’s us there, there’s a giraffe and I think that’s a herd of impala,” Miser, a former US Air Force engineer who maintained UAS during the Iraq war, pointed out to his audience on a small screen displaying the aircraft’s infrared view.
The aircraft can scan the ground to a resolution of 3cm – “we could do a count of your guinea fowl population while we’re up here,” he added.
But of the poachers, there was no sign. “They took their shoes off so we couldn’t track which way they went, and they’re probably over the fence by now,” said Craig Spencer, Oliphants West’s Chief Warden.
A veteran of the South African bush wars, Mr Spencer said his military training was fast becoming more important than his anthropological education.
“Many of these guys are former Mozambican rebel fighters who come over the 250-mile border to the east,” he said. “They’re carrying R5 assault rifles that you can only get from the South African military. They booby-trap rhino carcasses. Some suspects stopped recently were carrying AK47s but also had bodyguards with them.
“Every time this war rears its ugly head, we take our old rusty tool box out of the shed. We polish our tools, give them bigger badges and pay them bigger salaries but we need to keep ahead of the game. We need to use technology. I have nine people to defend 10,000 hectares. If we try to fight it using the same rusty old toolbox, we are going to lose. This UAS has the potential to become the most valuable tool we have.”
The idea to use UAS in anti-poaching is not unique – several have been tested in other parts of South Africa and Kenya. But military technology comes with a price tag, and some governments are nervous about allowing its unrestricted use within their airspace.
Mr Miser has sought to solve this by using civilian materials for the Falcon and making the aircraft short-range. Critically for such remote areas, it can been operated by the average ranger and is easily repairable.
The aircraft itself costs $15,000 (£10,000) and $23,000 with the cost of the camera, ground control equipment and training factored in – roughly equal to one ranger’s annual salary. ”This will do the job of at least 10 rangers on the ground and make the ones you do have more effective,” he said. “The UAS can also work for its money by helping with animal counts and mapping.”
In the vast landscapes of the Greater Kruger National Park, even aerial searches can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Enter Dr Tom Snitch, a former arms adviser to US President Ronald Reagan and University of Maryland mathematical modeller who also works for the UN’s Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System.
Just as advertisers target consumers online with products they will like most based on Google searches and their Facebook status updates, Dr Snitch will look at where rhinos like to graze, where they were killed before, the phases of the moon, the weather, the time of day and day of week to determine where and when poachers will strike next.
“We can put all these variables into the computer and come out with algorithms,” he said. “You can’t fly over the whole park but by creating this mathematical model, you can fly over the hot spots and when you see people coming two and a half kilometres out, you have time to get your rangers in position.”
Dr Snitch’s models have previously been used to catch those laying roadside bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as arsonists in US cities. He believes that coupling them with a UAS offers a unique solution.
Photo: Falcon designer Chris Miser – Aislinn Laing for the Telegraph
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