Ol Pejeta Wildlife Sanctuary has received legal approval to launch a Sh3.2 million drone to fight poaching in the 90,000-acre facility.
The sanctuary’s spokesperson Ms Elodie Sampere said the 'Aerial ranger’ will officially be launched in June.
This will be the first time modern technology is used to fight poaching in Kenya.
“It
has been quite a journey to get to this point and has taken the leading
experts in drone technology-Airware Incorporated, countless development
hours. The aerial ranger’s software and hardware were developed from
scratch. Tests were conducted and we are upbeat, we now have the right
drone strong enough to withstand challenging operating conditions,” she
said.
Ol Pejeta recently celebrated the birth of its
100th rhino calf since it was established and hosts one of the largest
herds within East Africa.
The sanctuary was also voted the best managed wildlife conservancy in the world in 2013.
Ms Sampere said the drone, once launched, would also reduce costs of conducting wildlife census across its vast land.
She said they used to hire a light aircraft at Sh18,920 per hour
for 13 hours, with the data collected being subjected to a large degree
of human error as counting has to be done in real time and with wide
transects.
“But an Aerial Ranger could do all this in a
day, at minimal cost, recording footage that can be watched several
times over and carefully analysed. Censuses could be conducted monthly,
providing experts with valuable and more reliable data about the
Laikipia ecosystem.
“You will simply click a spot on a
'Google Earth’ style map, and select the 'fly here’ or 'point camera
here’ option. In the same menu is a 'return home’ button, which, when
clicked, will send the drone back to its launch point without any
further instruction. When it has reached its landing spot, it deploys
its parachute and floats elegantly to the ground. The beautiful
simplicity of the operating system, coupled with sophisticated mission
capabilities, was a high priority,” she said.
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