Drones employed to help combat poaching

Drones To Be Employed in Kenyan Anti-Poaching Effort

I F****** Love Science - Link

When it comes to protecting wildlife, those who work to protect animals against poaching are up against some serious obstacles. Lack of funds often leave rangers overworked and underpaid, often not even with adequate equipment to patrol such an expansive area. In some countries, rangers aren’t even allowed to carry firearms even though they are up against armed poachers. Some poachers have even gained employment as rangers in order to have better access to the animals. Even the rangers with the best of intentions are struggling to combat poaching and keep the animals alive. For the rangers in Kenya, however, help is on the way.

Government officials have stated that rangers will soon be getting assistance from drones to use for surveillance purposes. Patrick Omondi, who serves as Deputy Director for Wildlife Conservation at the Kenya Wildlife Service has stated that the first drones to be put into use will be in Tsavo National Park. At 40,000 square kilometers, this is one of the largest parks in the world, making it a challenge to stop poachers. In 1967, Tsavo National Park was home to over 35,000 elephants. That number has been cut down to about 12,500 today and represents a third of all elephants in Kenya.

Well this is the more useful things i've seen with drones lately (other than the ones for pleasure). I think these kinds of drones could be applied to various aspects of life, just hopefully not to infringe rights (yeah right).

There are very few good ideas when it comes to drones, beer delivery is a good one too



So guys and gals, what are some other good uses for drones? (in your opinion)
Inspecting places dangerous for humans

reply to post by AzureSky


Finally! Instead of using tech to wage petty wars, they're finally using it to protect wildlife! S&F from me, mate!

Damn straight, love it when they use this technology in the appropriate way

S&F from me too

Cheers

Spiro

you know...someone might be able to make some money on headgear that wouldn't reveal who a person is from drones...and how about some sparkly stuff to go on the face to combat facial recognition

See this is how it starts ....

Introduce the drone as something positive !

So people will warm up to them, than before we know it! They will be all over the sky monitoring our everyday activitys.

Don't get me wrong i am all for wildlife protection... But..... I can see how all that can change....

Just saying

LSH

All new things, technology included, seem to cause fear, resentment, and, yes... conspiracies.

Technology or any tool or potential is neither 'good' or 'evil.' It can be used in ways that benefit us or do not benefit us.

Context and perspective is everything. It's definitely not good for poachers!

To be quite honest I think "drones" have received alot of flack for their use as weapons.
Its inevitable that drones will be widespread in the near future and it is our job to seize the moment and push the boundaries of what can be done with them FOR US whilst the repercussions and regulations haven't formulated yet.

It may be your major concern that you could come under drone surveillance yet the potential for drones to be used for surveillance against the government is limitless. I imagine that we could use drones our self to capture images of police brutality at riots and other occurrences, police can confiscate video cameras and phones yet nothing can be done against a drone which is flying as the risk of bringing it down is simply to high to both the police and the protesters.

Besides the use as a protester tool, as the article shows, drones can be used to stop poaching. Recently in america (I think it was brought to my attention on ATS) an RC hobbyist used his rig to capture footage of people killing birds with unnecessary harm - the birds were most of the time alive after shooting and were left to bleed out, if i remember rightly the guys doing it were prosecuted but without the hobbyist, nobody would have know.

Although the use of drones by the police is unpopular i think it reduces risks significantly - i mean look at what unfortunately happened in the Glasgow pub incident, I'm pretty sure nobody would have died if a 20Kg drone had hit the roof instead of a helicopter.

The use of aerial photography and surveys in archaeology is vital, hiring a helicopter or plane costs a lot of money yet drones offer a cheaper and safer avenue by which aerial surveys of a site can be conducted.

As a fire monitoring tool a pair of drones can watch and monitor a whole building with the advantage of having an aerial perspective as opposed to having several firefighters on the ground with inferior fields of view.

THOUGH i must admit that drones will be exploited by the government (even further than they have been so far) for their own ends and that there are numerous ways that they can be used to do bad, we need to see them as a tool that we can use for ourselves so that we don't we'll fall behind.

It'd be wrong to shun this technology as it could seriously help our society today.

LightningStrikesHere
See this is how it starts ....

Introduce the drone as something positive !

So people will warm up to them, than before we know it! They will be all over the sky monitoring our everyday activitys.

Don't get me wrong i am all for wildlife protection... But..... I can see how all that can change....

Just saying

LSH

I hear ya, I hear what ya saying and agree with you. Though from this OP I perceived it as the other way round.

It has been in the wrong hands for to long. Long may it continue in the OP sense

Spiro, that is, Spiro

reply to post by DodgyDawg


Damn straight, with everything you said. Definitely worthy of a star AND reply.

The pattern which is developing in my eyes is that off this technology, and most others, always seems to start in the wromg hands IE: spying, using it against humanity and what not.

Your post had a profound effect on me and I hope so on others too

Spiro, that is, Spiro