Text messages save elephants’ lives, villagers’ crops

As elephants’ habitat is destroyed, the great beasts frequently leave their protected reserves, barging into villages and eventually are killed by rangers. But in Kenya, there is a better way: text messaging. [via ZDNet]

"A group called Save the Elephants has outfitted a huge bull elephant named Kimani with a text-messaging collar that alerts rangers whenever he crosses the boundary of the Ol Pejeta conservatory.

The project not only saves the elephants, it protects nearby families and villages from economic devastation and loss of life."

Related articles on tracking wildlife with cell phone technology:

-- Texting to save Kenyan elephants - Scientists in Kenya are using text messages to keep tabs on elephants

Cell phone technology helps researches obtain information about animals - Researchers in Kenya and South Africa are using cell phone technology to gather information on elephants, cheetahs, leopards and other animals, reports Pravda.

Cellphone technology to track dolphins and elephants - Reuters reports that South African researchers are planning on tracking dusky dolphins with a new device that uses cell phone sim cards.

-- SMS technology keeps wild wolf on the map - Norwegian researchers have used cellphone text messaging for the first time to track a young wolf that recently crossed the border from neighbouring Sweden.

-- Tracking Moose by SMS - Researchers from the University of Agricultural Sciences of Stockholm are tagging several dozen moose with special cell phones to track their eating habits and movements across the country.

-- Tracking Geese on a 3'000 km flight - UK's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust tagged 20'000 geese and tracked them with satellite technology from the breeding grounds of Canada to Ireland, a 3'000 km flight.

-- Seals sent out SMS - From the Scottish waters, seals sent out SMS to scientists.

SMS to Replace Sheep Herding?

An unusual experiment is currently being executed in Húsavík in the remote Strandir region in the West Fjords. GPS equipment with a GSM transmitter has been placed in a collar around the neck of 13 ewes, which sends daily SMS messages with their locations. The Iceland Review reports.

"The purpose with the experiment is to investigate the interaction between sheep while grazing in the mountains in summer, mainly to see whether related sheep stick together, Morgunbladid reports.

The 13 ewes belong to three family groups. Each of their collars transmits one SMS message per day with their locations every three hours (eight locations in one message). If the ewe remains motionless for three hours the collar sends a warning signal in case the animal might be ill or dead."

Mobile development rings true

Elephants might not be able to make phone calls, but that doesn't stop them carrying mobiles. It doesn't stop crocodiles or seals, either. The BBC reports.

"Today from Kenya to South Africa, from Sweden to Greece, conservationists are using mobile networks to track a range of endangered species using GSM technology.

The advance of mobile technology has touched just about every aspect of the non-profit world, whether the focus is wildlife conservation or human health, and we've only just begun to scratch the surface.

"The potential for mobiles in conservation and development work is huge, and evidence of their use is increasing." Ken Banks - kiwanja.net

More on ways cell phone technology is used to track wildlife.

emily | 3:54 PM | permalink

Push to Talk put to good use in Keyna

Push to talk on cell phones may soon come to the aid of farmers living under the constant threat of elephants from Mount Kenya forest. Business Daily Africa reports.

"Tests on a new GSM technology that seeks to enhance communication between local communities and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) are at an advanced stage.

Dubbed ‘Push to Talk on Cellular’ (PoC), the technology has brought together Safaricom Ltd as the lead organization, Groupe Spéciale Mobile Association (GSMA) Development Fund, Wireless Zeta Telecomunicaciones (Wireless ZT), Nokia, the Nokia Siemens Networks, and local conservation organizations.

The early warning system combines the functionality of a walkie-talkie with a mobile phone. It enables communication between two individuals, or a group of people, and is particularly useful in connecting a user group.

PoC can also be used alongside voice and data services on a single handset. Users can make standard phone calls and send text messages while accessing two-way communication and group talk."

Text-O-Possum

Kasey McMahon, an artist from Your Psycho Girlfriend has created a mammal-machine hybrid; the text-o-possum. The left rear leg of this taxidermied texter hides a bluetooth keyboard projector that shoots ASCII into the ether with red lasers.

A Boing Boing operative tests out the text-o-possum's capabilities for enterprise computing in an urban business environment. Very strange.

Watch on boingboing.tv.

Seal to Send SMS

Victoria, an orphan baby seal rescued from rough seas near the island of Tinos just hours after she was born, will be returning to the open sea on Saturday, according to News from Greece.

" She won't be shunning civilization entirely, however, since she goes forth equipped with her very own text messaging device.

To keep track of the mammal, however, ociety for the Study and Protection of the Mediterranean Seal (MOm) will attach a transmitter similar to a mobile phone on the small seal that will send the team SMS messages at regular intervals.

"Through text messages that we will receive at regular time intervals we will be informed of the young seal's geographical location, the depth of her dives, the amount of time she spends in and out of the water and her swimming speed," MOm's spokeswoman Pepi Lagonikasaid.

Links to articles related to tracking wildlife with cell phones

Tracking Zebras by GPS

Wireless networks have been used before to track animals, such as elephants, dolphins, koalas, and even pigeons. Now, U.S. researchers are using social networking software to track zebras. Blogs ZDNet reports.

They hope to discover how animals interact — especially when lions are near a herd. They also think their software can help ecologists devise new techniques to protect endangered species." Read more.

Links to other GPS animal tracking projects

Mobile phones used to call owls

A professor has taken to ringing owls on his mobile phone. What is most remarkable is that they return his calls in a project that could revolutionise surveys of wild bird populations, reports The Telegraph.

"Researchers at MIT near Boston report today that the phones can help keep more accurate counts of owls.

When Eben Goodale wants to count the birds, he places a call that triggers phones in the forest to play, via speakers, pre-recorded owl calls, such as hoots and whistles.

Territorial owls raise their heads and approach what they think may be an intruder. If they respond with a hoot, the phones transmit the sound back to the "Owl Project" website.

Goodale and Dale Joachim, who describe the research today in the journal Biology Letters, believe that they have shown that mobiles are an effective way to listen in to how birds are doing in the wild, and the diversity of the area. " Read full article.

Cell phones, text-messaging revolutionalize conservation approaches

An interesting interview of IT conservation expert Ken Banks on
Mongabay.com.

Banks says that the development of low-cost handsets and the spread of second-hand phones into emerging markets like South Asia and Africa is generating a revolution in how organizations approach conservation projects.

Mobile phones offer these groups new ways to engage stakeholders, while reducing overhead costs and inefficiencies. The technology can even allow them to track animals, protect parks, and conduct surveys in some of the world's most remote forests.

Excerpts of interview related to 3 projects.:

3. In the Okapi Wildlife Reserve of the Democratic Republic of Congo, satellite phones enable patrols to text message their GPS location along with a short message from anywhere in the Reserve. The base operator can then call the patrol teams in an emergency, resulting in a much quicker response to threats to the Reserve.

Read full interview

Bears With Phones

Swedish bears in the country wake up after their winter hibernation period and leave their dens reports Cellular News and it's also the time to change the batteries in their "mobile phones".

"In the forests between Orsa and Sveg in the Dalarna region, some 50 bears come out of hibernation wearing a mobile terminal around their necks.

"A number of bears in the Orsa area have been equipped with a mobile terminal over the past two years. These terminals on the bears can automatically send SMS messages to a research station, as well as receive them, after which positioning technology is used to keep track of the bears' movements.

The research is part of a Scandinavian bear project that utilises mobile technology and Telia's GSM network to track and map where the bears wander."

Click here for links to other articles on cell phone technology used to track animal life".

Pigeons get backpacks for air pollution monitoring

A flock of pigeons fitted with mobile phone backpacks is to be used to monitor air pollution, New Scientist magazine reported on Wednesday via Reuters.

"The 20 pigeons will be released into the skies over San Jose, California, in August. Each bird will carry a GPS satellite tracking receiver, air pollution sensors and a basic mobile phone.

Text messages on air quality will be beamed back in real time to a special "Pigeon Blog" . Miniature cameras slung around the pigeons' necks will also post aerial pictures.

The idea is the brainchild of researcher Beatrice da Costa, of the University of California at Irvine, and two of her students."

Other pigeon-taking-picture project - Urban Eyes

Cell phone for birds

By attaching miniature cell packs to migrating songbirds, Oregon State University scientists hope to solve the mystery of where birds go and what perils they face when traveling back and forth from warmer and cooler climates each year, reports Corvallis Gazette.

Douglas Robinson contacted OSU’s College of Engineering to design a simplified, 0.07-ounce cell pack that will slip around birds’ legs “like pulling on a pair of underwear,” Robinson explained.

To wear the cell pack, a bird must weigh at least 1.4 ounces. Many thrushes, grosbeaks, sandpipers and ducks are good candidates.

After testing the cell device, researchers will travel to the tropics and attach the packs to hundreds of long-distance migratory songbirds. To conserve batteries, phones will be turned off until a pre-determined date when the birds are expected to be in North America. Then the cell phones will activate and attempt to connect with the nearest cell tower.

The phone will transmit its identification number to the tower. The cellular network will then have a record of the bird’s number, what tower it is near and the date and time of contact. Robinson has a verbal agreement with TMobile for its cooperation, and hopes to secure similar arrangements with other companies.

The researcher believes this technology has valuable medical and military applications. “With cardiac patients, you could monitor heart rhythms, and if a troubling pattern is detected, the cell phone could send a signal alerting the physician directly,” he said.

Cell phone use changes life in Africa

Africa's cellphone explosion changes economics and society. "We are developing unique ways to use the phone, which has not been done anywhere else," says South African Michael Joseph, chief executive officer of Safaricom, one of two service providers in Kenya.

For example, wildlife researchers in Kenya and South Africa have put no-frills cellphones in weatherproof cases on a collar that goes around an elephant's neck. The phone sends a message every hour, revealing the animal's whereabouts, explains USA Today.

It cuts the cost of tracking wildlife by up to 60%, said Professor Wouter van Hoven of the University of Pretoria's Center for Wildlife Management.

Saidi, a Zanzibar fisherman, can now check beforehand whether prices justify him sailing his catch to the Tanzanian mainland, while Wilson Kuria Macharia, head of the traders' association at the Nairobi market, says he no longer has to spend two to four weeks at a time roaming across Kenya and Tanzania in search of fresh produce. "A few mobile phone calls take care of what used to be the most grueling part of the business," he explained.

People who don't own a cellphone can use public telephone centers linked to cellular networks, creating badly needed jobs.

The number of subscribers in the nation of more than 130 million has jumped from about 700,000 to over 10 million, and hawkers make a living selling air time cards to motorists trapped in traffic.

On the downside, however, bus passengers on cross-country journeys have to turn off their cellphones because criminals are known to use them to coordinate highway robberies.

Greenpeace Uses SMS To Monitor Forest Destruction

In Argentina Greenpeace is providing indiginous people with mobile phones so that they can text for help when their lands are under attack from developers, according to Mike Grenville for 160characters.org. As well as sending help, Greenpeace also used SMS to call up protesters for an instant demonstration in Buenos Aires to urge the president to spare forests.

... "We use SMS with grassroots and indigenous communities soldiers when landowners are tying to evict people or use bulldozers to destroy the forest" said Oscar Soria, Communications Director, Greenpeace Argentina. "SMS is the most accessible method for indigenous people as they don't have landlines or access to electricity". "In some cases Greenpeace supplies the phones and car battery to charge the phones when there is no electricity in the village."

Cell phone technology helps researches obtain information about animals

Researchers in Kenya and South Africa are using cell phone technology to gather information on elephants, cheetahs, leopards and other animals, reports Pravda.

"The relatively cheap tracking device includes a no-frills cell phone that is put in a weatherproof case with a GPS receiver, memory card and software to operate the system. The unit, placed on a collar, is then tied around the neck of a wild animal, according to the AP.

As the animals roam, "the GPS receives coordinates, downloads them onto the memory chip, and then every hour, the phone wakes up and sends a text message of the last hour's coordinates to a central server," said Michael Joseph of Safaricom, Kenya's leading service provider, which is involved in an elephant-tracking project.

Then the phone goes to sleep again, preserving battery power."

More on cell phones and wildlife

Teeny Phones for Tweety Birds

According to Wired, humans may not be the only animals using cell phones in the near future.

"Ornithologists and engineers at Oregon State University are planning to strap tiny mobile phones to songbirds and monitor the birds' migration with unprecedented accuracy.

But the birds will not "phone home" like college kids calling from spring break destinations. Instead, the cellular devices will send simple codes to cell towers along migratory routes.

The devices attached to the birds will share unique identification numbers with cell towers as they pass within range. Network service providers will record the ID numbers, the towers contacted and the times when contact was made."

Related: In 2002, UK's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust tagged 20'000 geese and tracked them with satellite technology from the breeding grounds of Canada to Ireland, a 3'000 km flight. Mobile phone users were able to sign up online for text messages on the whereabouts of the migrating geese.

More on: mobile wildlife tracking in Textually.

Farmers fight crime with technology

Australian farmers could soon be using their mobile phone or the internet to open the farm gate from anywhere in the world, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

"Technology developed at the University of New England in NSW will enable farmers to remotely control and monitor livestock movement by using their mobile phone or the internet.

It will also eventually allow them to monitor and control the farm gate and water trough levels.

Currently, the system has been developed to allow in-built alarm systems in the farm gate and water trough to send an automatic mobile phone text message if an unannounced visitor opens the gate or the water levels fall too low.

"Farmers can use the system for security surveillance as well as for stock monitoring," Mr Doyle said.

"It will be particularly useful for farmers working several properties at once, and for those who also have a job in town.

"It will save them travel time, as well as fuel costs and other expenses."

Safari by cellphone

Professor Wouter van Hoven of the University of Pretoria's Center for Wildlife Management is heading up a project that tracks three leopards in the Waterberg region of South Africa's Limpopo Province, <using a combination of cellphone and GPS, or global positioning system, technology, reports the IHT.

African Wildlife Tracking, headed by Martin Haupt, is the company behind the wireless animal tracking system that Van Hoven is using in his leopard project.

"Haupt said getting a text message from a leopard - or an elephant, cheetah, rhino or lion - was increasingly frequent in South Africa. Many game reserves or conservation areas have wild animals that are fitted with collared tracking devices.

"The device is fitted around the animal's neck," Haupt said. "On the collar you have batteries, a GPS, a VHF transmitter and a cellphone." The cellphone, he said, is a "no frills" mobile phone about 2 centimeters, or 0.8 inch, long and 3 millimeters thick.

... Van Hoven explained how the technology works for his leopard research purposes: "The collar on the animal is programmed to send out four SMSs a day, every six hours, and that SMS is linked to a GPS, so every six hours the collars register the exact global position of where the animal is. That is then fed to the cellphone. The cellphone then sends the SMS, which is the position information of the animal."

Related articles on tracking wildlife by cell phone

Texting to fight wild dogs

Text message technology is being trialled in Victoria (Asutralia) to fight wild dogs, reports ABC.net.au..

"Antennas have been attached to traps, which then send out a message to wild dog controllers after a dog has been caught.

The trial aims to speed up the time it takes to check traps, as currently they are monitored every three days in case a dog has been snared."

Cellphone technology to track dolphins and elephants

Reuters reports that South African researchers are planning on tracking dusky dolphins with a new device that uses cell phone sim cards.

"This will enable them to track the marine mammals along their coastal ranges and at a fraction of the price of old satellite technology.

"With cellphone towers on coasts you can have a signal for 2.5 km (1.5 miles) out to sea," Martin Haupt of Africa Wildlife Tracking told Reuters in an interview.

The black and white dolphins are also famed for their explosive displays of aerial acrobatics which means they can stay above the surface long enough to lock a signal on them.

OUT OF AFRICA

Haupt said cell phone technology had revolutionised animal tracking over the past four years and about 200 beasts were now collared with such technology in Africa, including elephants, zebras and baboons.

"It's a lot cheaper than using satellites. A reading is the cost of an SMS," he said.

The batteries last longer than those used in the old satellite devices, the system uses GPS tracking and your elephant is just an SMS text message away.

"You can type in an SMS 'Where is elephant number 1?' and it will give you its location," he said.

Related articles on tracking wildlife with cell phone technology:

-- Texting to save Kenyan elephants - Scientists in Kenya are using text messages to keep tabs on elephants

-- SMS technology keeps wild wolf on the map - Norwegian researchers have used cellphone text messaging for the first time to track a young wolf that recently crossed the border from neighbouring Sweden.

-- Tracking Moose by SMS - Researchers from the University of Agricultural Sciences of Stockholm are tagging several dozen moose with special cell phones to track their eating habits and movements across the country.

-- Tracking Geese on a 3'000 km flight - UK's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust tagged 20'000 geese and tracked them with satellite technology from the breeding grounds of Canada to Ireland, a 3'000 km flight.

-- Seals sent out SMS - From the Scottish waters, seals sent out SMS to scientists.

Abalone Poachers and Cell Phones

An article by the Chicago Tribune gives interesting insight on a stretch of coast east of Cape Town where inhabits the world's last big concentrations of commercial abalone - a rare giant sea snail, which is considered a delicacy in Asia and an aphrodisiac in China, and which is subject to poaching on an alarming scale, fueled and fought by new technologies - used both by the anti-poaching squads as well as the poachers.

This is the interesting tidbit related to cell phones - to be filed under trivia, or one more way people use cell phones:

"Poachers tuck cell phones - set on vibrate and tied inside condoms - inside their wetsuits. When lookouts working with the poachers spot police, they simply phone, and the divers, who already are hard to spot in the bobbing kelp beds where they work, vanish underwater.

At times hundreds of divers converge on abalone hot spots, ensuring that even if police arrest a few, the majority will get away."

Texting to save Kenyan elephants

Scientists in Kenya are using text messages to keep tabs on elephants, reports the BBC,

"They're fitting the tuskers with special collars that text in their exact location every hour, enabling experts to discover where elephants roam, and use that information to protect them.

They hope the technology will also be able to warn farmers if elephants are about to trample their crops in future.

The scheme is possible because the Africa bush is now part of a growing mobile phone network, with loads of masts covering the countryside."

Other wildlife tracking by SMS:

-- SMS technology keeps wild wolf on the map - Norwegian researchers have used cellphone text messaging for the first time to track a young wolf that recently crossed the border from neighbouring Sweden.

-- Tracking Moose by SMS - Researchers from the University of Agricultural Sciences of Stockholm are tagging several dozen moose with special cell phones to track their eating habits and movements across the country.

-- Tracking Geese on a 3'000 km flight - UK's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust tagged 20'000 geese and tracked them with satellite technology from the breeding grounds of Canada to Ireland, a 3'000 km flight.

-- Seals sent out SMS - From the Scottish waters, seals sent out SMS to scientists.

Fishermen tap SMS to protect coastlines

A group of fishermen in Bohol (Philippines) is using cell phones and text messaging to monitor marine resources as part of efforts to strengthen a community-led campaign against illegal fishing in the area, reports The Manilla Times.

Chemical repellent activated by SMS to disperse birds on the runway

The highly modern Singapore Air Force is plagued by migratory egrets that appear between September and November, causing fighter planes to crash if sucked into the jet engines, reports Spacewar.com.

The Air Force base has come up with several solutions to this problem; importing aggressive hawks from Germany to help scare the birds off, using flares, using digitally recorded bird distress calls or, and of interest to this column, using a chemical repellant dispenser activated by SMS text messages from the control tower whenever unwelcome avian guests are spotted on the runway.

SMS technology keeps wild wolf on the map

Norwegian researchers have used cellphone text messaging for the first time to track a young wolf that recently crossed the border from neighbouring Sweden, according to iol.

"The wolf is tagged with a transmitter that transmits short text messages whenever the animal is near a cellphone communication antenna.

"Via the SMS messages we receive, we can locate where the wolf is, and we also get a time log," researcher Petter Wabakken told public broadcaster NRK.

The technology is cheap and enables the researchers to track the wolf which roams a large area, Wabakken said."

Related articles:

- Tracking Moose by SMS - Researchers from the University of Agricultural Sciences of Stockholm are tagging several dozen moose with special cell phones to track their eating habits and movements across the country. Updates by SMS will be sent to the scientists 7 times a day.

Other such experiences have been conducted involving both wildlife and SMS. Last year, UK's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust tagged 20'000 geese and tracked them with satellite technology from the breeding grounds of Canada to Ireland, a 3'000 km flight. Mobile phone users were able to sign up online for text messages on the whereabouts of the migrating geese.

And from the Scottish waters, seals sent out SMS to scientists. Tiny tags were fitted on their coats to track their movements and their location pinpointed by satellite global positioning system. As the seals approached shorelines and were within mobile phone coverage, data stored was then sent by SMS from the seals to the land.

Tracking Moose by SMS

The New Zealand Star reports that researchers from the University of Agricultural Sciences of Stockholm are tagging several dozen moose with special cell phones to track their eating habits and movements across the country. Updates by SMS will be sent to the scientists 7 times a day.

Other such experiences have been conducted involving both wildlife and SMS. Last year, UK's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust tagged 20'000 geese and tracked them with satellite technology from the breeding grounds of Canada to Ireland, a 3'000 km flight. Mobile phone users were able to sign up online for text messages on the whereabouts of the migrating geese.

And from the Scottish waters, seals sent out SMS to scientists, according to an article in Ananova. Tiny tags were fitted on their coats to track their movements and their location pinpointed by satellite global positioning system. As the seals approached shorelines and were within mobile phone coverage, data stored was then sent by SMS from the seals to the land.