Satellite trackers help fight vultures’ extinction in southern Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Every other hour, Sonja Krüger logs onto her website and checks the birds’ status. Pharoah is taking a mud bath in the mountains, Jeremia is on…
Conservation Technology News
Wildtech provides news and information on how the conservation community can better leverage technology. We are a non-profit initiative.
A monitoring network in the Amazon captures a flood of data
Monitoring technology deployed in a remote rainforest over time subjects it to high heat, humidity, and rainfall, as well as potential damage by insects and other wildlife. When you add…
Peru’s Brazil nut harvesters learn to monitor forests with drones
Flor Rumayna and Sara Hurtado arrived in Lima this past August from their homes in the Amazon headwaters to learn more about aerial monitoring of forests. They’d been researching new technologies…
Mosses could help rapidly detect pollution
Drug-sniffing dogs are an accepted part of our modern world. In the near future, could pollution-sniffing mosses be equally common? Although plants seem inactive compared to animals, a team led…
Bits of DNA in ocean water can reveal white sharks swimming nearby
Sharks shed bits of themselves into the ocean constantly. Scientists can now use DNA in these bits to monitor whether white sharks – commonly called great whites – are swimming…
For elusive Javan rhinos, camera traps are a benevolent Big Brother
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — “This is the world’s first ever video of a wild Javan rhino couple mating,” Mamat Rahmat declared in a presentation to veterinary undergrads in the Indonesian city…
‘Drifters of opportunity’: Seabirds track energy in tidal currents
Data from GPS-tagged seabirds, as they were swept along in the strong currents of the Irish Sea, could help researchers move a step closer to harnessing the energy in those…
For the birds: Innovations enable tracking of even small flying animals
Animal tracking has revolutionized our study of animal movements and behavior. Radio transmitter tags, followed by GPS and other satellite-based tags, placed on animals via a collar, harness, glue, or…
Tropical trees grow most easily where they are rare
Tropical forests are incredibly diverse ecosystems, and ecologists have long wondered why. New research studying a specific Panamanian tree – the yellow-flowering Handroanthus guayacan – has provided an answer. But…
Virtual meetup highlights networked sensor technology for parks
Technology users and tech developers don’t always talk directly to each other, but they should. The relatively small size of the scientific/conservation community and its need for a particular suite…
Information-based solutions for forest conservation projects
Forest monitoring has experienced a revolution in recent years, with vast improvements in satellite sensors, the emergence of drones, and growing ubiquity of on-the-ground technologies like smartphones and camera traps.…
In pursuit of the rare bird that vanishes for half the year
KATHMANDU, Nepal — As dawn peeks through the morning mist on an early spring day in Nepal's Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, a duck-sized bird flaps its wings and throws itself…
Filling in the gaps: Managing endangered species on the high seas
Of gaps and limitations Our knowledge about sea animals is riddled with holes. We may study and record sea lion colonies or sea turtle nesting and hatching events as they…
Camera-wielding robot records effects of pesticide on bees’ behavior
“It’s easy to quantify if insects are dead,” said Harvard post-doctoral fellow James Crall, lead author of the recent study “Neonicotinoid exposure disrupts bumblebee nest behavior, social networks, and thermoregulation.”…
Pod-cast: New app streams whale songs for web users in real time
Researchers have developed a web-based application to enable citizen scientists to listen to the sounds of killer whales in the northeast Pacific in real time. Publicly launched on Nov. 1,…
Google searches reveal public interest in conservation is rising
OK, Google: Has the general public lost interest in biodiversity conservation? Has people’s interest in environmental issues been overshadowed by climate change alone? The answer to both questions, according to…
Radar helps Kenya map mangroves and other cloud-covered forests
Most of Kenya is arid, and lengthy droughts can lead to livestock loss, illegal grazing in protected areas, and violent interactions between nomadic herders and other landowners. Less known are…
Speed trap: Cameras help defuse human-cheetah conflict in Botswana
Botswana’s policy of zero tolerance for poaching and illegal hunting has given it the reputation of valuing wildlife conservation. But an increase in human-wildlife conflict in recent years appears to…
Satellite technology unites Kenyans against bush fires
NYERI, Kenya - It took nine hours for Margaret Wanjugu and neighbors to put out a fire that razed Gathorongai forest near her home in central Kenya, in 2016. She…
Novel research method reveals small-scale gold mining’s impact on Peruvian Amazon
According to research released yesterday, small-scale gold mining has led to the destruction of more than 170,000 acres of primary rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon over the past five years.…
