Durban - What fauna and flora we have, where these are located and being able to analyse this information quickly, is considered critical to looking after our green heritage.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s technical innovations with its Cybertracker patrol monitoring system is considered to be pioneering work in Southern African conservation management efforts.
Announcing a series of “sensational technological breakthroughs” in the Cyber-tracker system, Ezemvelo Wild-life Data Specialist, Carmen van Tichelen said: “Wherever we patrol, whatever we see, biological or criminal, can now be recorded and documented at the press of a button.”
Cybertracker identifies and communicates vital informa-tion from its game reserves and protected areas.
“This is genuinely ground-breaking and holds seriously positive implications for conservation management. Previously, the information captured on the Cybertracker was prone to human error and when downloaded, required lengthy scrutiny and administration for it to be of any use,” said van Tichelen.
The innovations, she said, offered a critical new tool in monitoring black rhino and other priority species as well as helping combat poaching, among other advantages.
The breakthrough came after two years of research to installing a new system for the hand-held monitoring devices (Trimbles) carried by field rangers on patrol. At the press of a button the information is captured, downloaded and codified instantly.
A novel “Reporter” software system now automatically reviews all wildlife and criminal data, verifies it and generates various reports.
This gives Ezemvelo insight into wildlife numbers and their patterns of behaviour that will assist with combating rhino and other poaching.
To date the organisation has invested some R5-million on buying and supporting 200 Trimbles that are being used in all 13 of Ezemvelo’s rhino reserves.
Van Tichelen praised the organisation’s field staff who conducted the trials to perfect the Cybertracker system.
“Months and months of slog were involved…. Their commitment to this cause is so noteworthy and was fuelled by the horrendous rhino poaching war going on.
“But we have now reached the point of complete automation in monitoring patrol data and its seamless delivery through to the organisation’s existing databases.”
The Cybertracker software, originally developed in South Africa by Louis Liebenberg, enabled illiterate trackers to record wildlife data on hand-held computers.
Ezemvelo’s innovations began with the installation of visual icons of all animals and plants on to the Trimbles.
With its display in Zulu, the Trimbles guarantee management of detailed recordings with minimal human error.
Other advantages include Cybertracker being able to automatically document the position of a patrol every three minutes: “We now have infallible spatial data of both the areas covered on patrols and the location of priority wildlife species, such as rhino, elephant, wild dog, lions and the like.”
This data can be mapped to show anything from animal locations, removals and mortalities to poaching incidents and patrol routes etc.
These benefits have already translated into cost-saving measures. Recently, it took Ezemvelo’s Game Capture unit only four hours to dart 18 black rhino for notching purposes: “Previously it would have taken two days. The savings, both financial and human are significant,” said head of Game Capture Jeff Cooke.
Dennis Kelly, Section Ranger for the Nqumeni area in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, called the developments a “time warp” in conservation management.
“It has genuinely changed our lives. It previously took me all of two days to simply download information I received from my field rangers. Some had mistakes that took me even longer to identify. Now it takes me an hour.”
The same applied to fulfilling his field ranger work performance reports: “I don’t need to second-guess where they have been or what they have seen. It’s there; clear and conclusive.” - Independent on Saturday