{"id":115134,"date":"2020-08-22T17:37:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T21:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/?p=115134"},"modified":"2021-08-31T18:04:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T22:04:42","slug":"elephants-on-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/elephants-on-the-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephants on the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\"Elephants<\/a>The global COVID-19<\/a> lockdown<\/strong> is now taking its toll on endangered wildlife like elephants and rhinos around the globe. Global lockdowns<\/a> have caused a sharp drop in Africa’s wildlife tourism<\/a> <\/strong>revenue<\/a>.\u00a0Wildlife tourism in Africa<\/a> is a $169 billion industry. It employs 24.6 million people and is often the only employer in areas where wildlife thrives. The tourism business has helped curb poaching in several ways. First, tourists act as a deterrent to poachers. However, with fewer tourists, there are fewer tourist vehicles in parks. They are no longer a deterrent to poachers.<\/p>\r\n

\"The<\/a>Africa’s wildlife tourism revenue funds help to sustain wildlife reserves across the continent. At many of the reserves more than half of the budget comes from tourism revenues<\/strong>. Matt Brown, with The Nature Conservancy’s Africa program<\/a>, told<\/a> ABC News<\/a><\/em> that tourist fees support rangers. Fees such as bed-night, and conservation fees help pay for the rangers<\/a>‘ salaries. The fees also pay fuel for airplane patrols, and more – hampering security and opening the game reserves to poachers.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Vulnerable to poaching<\/h3>\r\n

Without money to support the rangers<\/strong> \u2014 and the highly endangered animals they protect – elephants gorillas and rhinos \u2014 are left vulnerable to poachers<\/strong>. The amount of poaching is on the rise because COVID-19 has reduced funding<\/a> for law enforcement in wildlife areas<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\"highly<\/a><\/p>\r\n

CNBC<\/a> <\/em>reports<\/a> that highly organized illegal poaching threatens to send African wildlife into extinction<\/strong> over the next several decades. Most vulnerable to extinction are the black and white rhinos, lions, and elephants<\/strong>. The black rhino<\/a> population has plummeted 97.6% since 1960. The lion<\/a> population is down 43% in the last 21 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund<\/a>. At least 35,000 African elephants<\/a> are killed each year. There are only 1,000 mountain gorillas<\/a> and 2,000 Grevy\u2019s zebras<\/a> that remain on the continent.<\/p>\r\n

According to reports<\/a>, six elephants were killed on one June day in Ethiopia\u2019s Mago National Park<\/a>. That compares to 10 in that nation for all of 2019. Officials suspect<\/a> that most elephant tusks and finished products are shipped to China<\/strong> and south-east Asian countries. To make matters worst, in 2017 the Trump administration rolled back the ban on hunting elephants. The Trump policy<\/strong> allows elephant remains to be imported into the United States.<\/a>\u00a0Conservationists believe<\/a> that elephants in the wild could be extinct within 10 years<\/strong> due primarily to poaching.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Using IoT\u00a0to protect elephants<\/h3>\r\n

\"<\/a>Extinction does not have to be the “new normal.<\/strong>” FierceElectronics<\/a><\/em> reported<\/a> on a collaboration using Internet of Things<\/strong> (IoT) technologies to protect elephants in the wild from extinction by developing a next-generation elephant tracking collar<\/strong>. The collaboration between Phoenix-based electronic components firm Avnet’s<\/a> developer community Hackster.io<\/a>, and conservation group Smart Parks<\/a> which focuses on technology to protect endangered species, are running a design competition called ElephantEdge<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n

The ElephantEdge<\/a> challenge asks developers to leverage the Internet of Things<\/strong> (IoT<\/a>) technologies that can help humans protect elephants from extinction. ElephantEdge<\/a> will combine software, machine learning (ML), and hardware to build the next generation elephant collars. The next generation collars will have better battery life, longer range, and accuracy<\/strong> that can be worn by elephants in the wild<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n

Elephant IoT collars<\/h3>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>The elephant IoT collars will have sensors<\/strong> for audio pickup, location, and position as well as low-power, wide-area antennas that provide wireless connectivity. The new collar will use<\/a> hardware and software from different vendors:<\/p>\r\n