Arthur Goldstuck
Tracker project lets one ‘read the mind’ of pack of wild dogs
The coming together of the sensor networks known as the Internet of Things and the massive information flows we call big data have obvious benefits for industrial and consumer activities, ranging from managing factories to monitoring traffic patterns.
Now, this combination could come to the rescue of threatened wildlife. The Endangered Wildlife Trust has embraced the technology for its carnivore conservation programme, and in particular for the Kruger rare carnivore programme, designed to monitor the African wild dog in Kruger National Park. One of the most threatened species in Africa, there are fewer than 500 of the dogs in South Africa.
The programme has succeeded in fitting tracking collars, using both GPS satellite tracking and VHF radio transmitters, to at least one animal in each of about 20 wild dog packs roaming Kruger.
Last week, the EWT lifted the curtain on the data that drives the project, during the Vodacom Red Wild Dogs tour, co-ordinated by the mobile network operator for a group of Vodacom Red clients and winners of a South African National Parks competition.
They were accompanied by Vodacom Bulls rugby coach John Mitchell and several of his players. Mitchell uses the wild dog’s status of being the animal with the highest hunting success rate as a metaphor in training the Bulls.
For David Marneweck, manager of the carnivore conservation programme, it is an opportunity to raise awareness of the plight of the wild dog, as well as to fine-tune the tracking operation. The data is delivered via satellite but if the tracker isn’t functioning the data gets as dirty as the collar.
“The first thing you need to do when you get a lot of GPS location data coming off collars is to clean that information,” Marneweck told Business Times. “We put the data on a geographic information system platform, and once you have clean GPS data for multiple packs, for multiple years and multiple seasons, the opportunities for analysis are endless.”
In effect, Marneweck is reading the mind of the pack.
“We use it to perform home-range analyses, such as the area and extent of that area they use, and the probability of wild dogs being in a particular area at a specific time. We can view the data in three dimensions, which allows you to see, for example, which areas they use more, and which are outliers, where they are only making brief extraterritorial forays.”
The data and the systems used to analyse it — including a statistical framework called R and a package called adehabitat, for analysing the space and habitat use by animals — allow for sophisticated modelling of factors affecting survival.
“We can strengthen our inferences so we can make better decisions on the management and conservation of the species,” Marneweck said.
Janus Kloppers, sponsorship manager for rugby at Vodacom, said: “I’m hoping with time the technology gets better, and the batteries smaller, and we want to help with the aim of getting all dogs collared. But the biggest funding need is for people, expertise and time with the wild dogs. If a year from now the EWT is able to do its job better, we’ve all won from this game.”