LONDON, January 21 – Conservationists have begun using satellite imagery to count elephants from space, a method British experts hope will help protect numbers in Africa.
Researchers at Oxford University and the University of Bath said the use of algorithms, machine learning and satellite technology could replace the conventional methods used for counting elephants – an essential aspect of conservation.
“The number of African elephants has fallen over the last century as a result of poaching, revenge kill from crop predation and habitat disruption,” Oxford said in a statement.
“To preserve them we need to know where they are, and how many there are: proper inspection is essential. ”
Currently, the most common method for studying elephant populations in savannah environments is air counting from manned aircraft.
Academics said air inspectors can get involved, and are sometimes hampered by poor eyesight.
“Satellite scanning is a non-invasive approach that does not require a ground presence, thus eliminating the risk of disturbing species, or worrying about human safety when we collecting data, ”they said.
“A process that would have taken months can be completed within a few hours.”
The scientists developed the techniques at South Africa’s Addo Elephant National Park.
The images, from a satellite going about 600 kilometers above the Earth, could explore up to 5,000 square kilometers of land in a single pass, captured in a matter of minutes.
The scientists trained the algorithm to identify only adults among a data set of 1,000 elephants in the park and then discovered that it was able to identify calves.
They hope that such conservation technologies will be adopted as a matter of urgency to protect the world’s biodiversity. – AFP