Articles by Caleb O'Brien

Drones and orange sweet potatoes — two unlikely examples of agricultural innovations being deployed in rural Tanzania.

As camera trap technologies become cheaper and more reliable, and as research budgets shrink, more scientists are using the tools to study small and elusive animals around the world, such as hummingbirds and one of Australia’s rarest mammals.

In a Q&A with WildTech, Meaghan Parker-Forney of the World Resources Institute discusses the illegal timber trade, tree DNA and the barcode of life.

When Ross McEwing, technical director of the TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network, learned about a new technique for testing rhino horn DNA, he knew the tool could help bring wildlife traffickers in Vietnam to justice.

A group of scientists from the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and World Animal Protection is on the prowl for new tools to help protect wild tigers.…

Using sophisticated software to analyze images from drone-mounted cameras could provide cheap, timely and detailed information on tree growth, seasonal forest dynamics and other key metrics.

By combining wildlife tracking data with information from satellites, Mark Hebblewhite pushes the boundaries of wildlife biology to uncover new information about the complex interplay among wolves, large ungulates such as elk and caribou and the ever-expanding human footprint.

A collaborative effort in the American West is using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, or drones) to map and evaluate prairie dog habitat for black-footed ferret restoration.

What costs pennies, fits in your pocket, and can illuminate a world invisible to the naked eye?

New advances in biological sensor tags are now allowing scientists to precisely measure animals’ energetics, their interactions with humans and their responses to rapidly changing environments.

Members of an indigenous group in the Brazilian Amazon are battling illegal logging on their territory. Now the Ka’apor people are adding new tools to their arsenal of arrows, clubs and antiquated firearms: camera traps, computers and GPS tracking devices.

This is a story about elephants, bees, trees, and a drink called Amarula. Amarula Cream is a liqueur distilled from the fermented fruit of the marula tree. The trees’ fruit…