Tracking technology to help save black rhino from extinction
Software developed by researchers in the US could help conservationists keep a watchful eye on the black rhino, one of the world’s most critically endangered species.
The interactive software, jointly developed by researchers at Duke University and analytics software specialist SAS, analyses the footprints left by black rhinos and can be used to monitor their movements, enabling conservationists help keep them safe from poachers.
The software, called the Footprint Identification Technique (FIT), runs on JMP software from SAS and uses advanced algorithms to analyse over 100 measurements of a rhino's footprint.
Because each rhino's footprint is as distinctive as a human fingerprint, the analysed images can be archived electronically in a global database of previously collected footprint images for matching.
"If you find a match, you can identify the individual animal who left the mark and, by plotting the locations of all the other places that mark has been seen, track its movements without disturbing it or coming into close enough contact with it for there to be a risk of animal-to-human viral transmissions," said Zoe Jewell, adjunct associate professor at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment.
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