{"id":409482,"date":"2021-02-22T20:08:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T04:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcuser&#038;p=409482"},"modified":"2021-02-25T11:22:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T19:22:24","slug":"helping-safeguard-threatened-raptors-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"arcuser","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/helping-safeguard-threatened-raptors-worldwide","title":{"rendered":"Helping Safeguard Threatened Raptors Worldwide"},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[24982,318502,319892],"tags":[1301,295782,473542],"arcuser_issues":[473092],"class_list":["post-409482","arcuser","type-arcuser","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-end-notes","category-environmental","category-geospatial-cloud","tag-biodiversity","tag-environmental-protection","tag-raptors","arcuser_issues-arcuser-winter-2021"],"acf":{"short_description":"Habitat Info launched a charitable citizen science project to collect data on the conservation status of African raptors.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":409572,"file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","content":"The author, Rob Davies, is the director of Habitat Info Ltd., a global technology company that specializes in the capture, management, analysis, and distribution of spatial data. In 2012, Habitat Info launched a charitable citizen science project to collect data on the conservation status of African raptors to determine how much habitat space was left for them."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":409712,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Initially, the African Raptor Databank (ARDB) met with opposition from critics who said collecting the status of raptors across Africa could not be done because Africa was too big. They urged Habitat Info to limit efforts to a region of Africa at most, focusing on protected areas and countries. However, raptors range freely, and many make annual pilgrimages across and between continents to breed and winter. In addition, it is funny that people often believe a smaller study area is less work to map in GIS. It\u2019s not.\r\n<h2>Starting with Africa<\/h2>\r\nTwo people and one organization stood out for their support of Habitat Info\u2019s holistic approach: Dr. Rick Watson and Dr. Munir Virani of The Peregrine Fund. <em>[The Peregrine Fund is a science-based, project-driven conservation organization based in Boise, Idaho.]<\/em> Watson and Virani, through their organization, have done much good work for raptors around the world. They supported ARDB from the start by generously sponsoring ARDB\u2019s Esri software. Esri provided ARDB with a nonprofit grant scheme that helped launch the project.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":409672,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"With access to ArcGIS Server, Habitat Info could pull in data from mobile phones from pretty much anywhere across the continent because in Africa almost everyone carries a mobile phone. First Virani, then later Darcy Ogada, coordinated the database for East Africa. Database coordination was done by Andre Botha in southern Africa; by Clive Barlow, Dr. Joost Brouwer and Dr. Ralph Buij in Central and West Africa; and by Dr. Hichem Azafzaf in North Africa. With the right team in place, data flowed in from hundreds of keen-eyed raptor observers across Africa.\r\n\r\nAfter five years, ARDB had more than 200,000 sightings of African raptors. At the end of this data collection period, the author travelled to Boise to show the results to members of The Peregrine Fund and thank them for believing in the project when others did not. Their response was, \u201cWhy stop at Africa? Let\u2019s go global!\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":409632,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h2>Going Global<\/h2>\r\nARDB then entered a new phase. Thanks largely to Chris McClure, Leah Dunn, Paul Spurling, and Brett Sebring, ARDB has become fully integrated with The Peregrine Fund\u2019s existing Global Raptor Impact Network (GRIN) and is hosted by a large database on the Amazon cloud. The Peregrine Fund\u2019s approach has facilitated the successful reinstatement of many locally extinct raptors around the world.\r\n\r\nWhile overcoming the technological challenges of gathering and collating data on raptors, there was convergent evolution in the quality and resolution of global, and especially Africa-wide, environmental datasets. The digital elevation models (DEMs), which revealed mountainous Black Eagle habitat; the global forest cover datasets, which represented Crowned Eagle habitat; and landcover, climate, and human population impact datasets. All showed improvement by orders of magnitude. These datasets were available at resolutions of 1 kilometer or even 300 meters, which were scales ecologically meaningful to individual pairs of raptors finding territories across Africa.\r\n\r\nDr. Corinne Kendall joined the team of coordinators towards the end of data gathering and she added an entirely new type of data on African raptors\u2014movement data. This data from satellites and GPS tags fitted to wild birds revealed extraordinary behaviours and filled many gaps in our knowledge about where these birds travel. This data created a much more complete picture of raptors, one that could only have been dreamed of a decade earlier.\r\n\r\nThe project initially started with an Enterprise Geodatabase hosted on a little server housed in Habitat Info\u2019s office. It benefited enormously from the enthusiasm of Habitat Info staff members Andrew Rayner, Tim Wroblewski, and Simon Trice, who worked industriously with interns Sarah Wigley and Zoey Taylor to build the database.\r\n\r\nBattling with the many different formats in which data was submitted made the team long for a method that would let observers add their own data. Rayner developed a pro forma spreadsheet for bulk loading existing data while ensuring data quality and verification, but the challenge of automating the addition of new data remained.\r\n\r\nEarly attempts to solve this problem with mobile technology made use of ArcPAD on an HP iPaq. Subsequently, Habitat Info staff member Rayner successfully applied his clear vision and programming skills to fulfill Habitat Info\u2019s elaborate requests to produce an intuitive, state-of-the-art mobile recording app for logging almost all aspects of raptors and their behaviour.\r\nThese efforts attracted a lot of interest, including development support from Kurt Eckerstrom, Nick Williams, and the Convention on Migratory Species. Habitat Info is most grateful for their help.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":409692,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The app allows both professional and citizen scientists to conduct multiple survey types with just a single tap of the screen. Simple sightings can be entered, and a wide array of morphological and behavior data appended. The app avoids tedious data entry by securely uploading data directly to the GRIN database.\r\n\r\nWith the GRIN app developed and available, Habitat Info is turning its attention back to Africa and intends to gather support to publish the ARDB and produce a hardcopy of the Conservation Atlas for African Birds of Prey.\r\n<h2>The Value of Vultures<\/h2>\r\nOne group of raptors brought the need for the ARDB into acute relief\u2014Africa\u2019s vultures. Vulture populations have been spiralling downward in the last couple of decades.\r\n\r\nThe decline is clearly caused by the illegal use of poison. Poachers in southern Africa lace elephant carcasses with poison to eliminate tell-tale soaring birds that give away the location of their crimes. A 40 percent decline in vulture populations has been attributed to poisoned carcasses. In Eastern Africa, a 60 percent decline in the vulture population was caused mainly by farmers who were trying to poison predators that were killing their livestock. A single carcass laced with poison can easily kill all the vultures in the surrounding area. This practice has been causing local extinctions.\r\n\r\nIn West Africa, a 90 percent decrease in vulture populations was linked to the illegal trade in vulture body parts. These parts are used in traditional medicine and play a part in superstitious practices used to predict soccer scores.\r\n\r\nWith such a precipitous decline, something needed to be done quickly. Buij, with support mainly from the Dutch government, stepped in and coordinated a project that pulled together everything then known about vultures and the threats to them. This project was the first significant use of ARDB and the clearest example of why these knowledge management systems are needed to enable more efficient conservation.\r\n\r\nSightings, habitat suitability models, and the movement patterns of vultures helped identify the most important habitat strongholds for vultures across Africa. This knowledge has helped conservationists focus efforts on the most important places instead of spreading efforts too widely across the vast continent. The culmination of the project is a series of maps and an educational poster to promote awareness and understanding of the threats to vultures.\r\n\r\nThe decimation of the vulture populations from the Indian subcontinent has been attributed to the use of diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug given to cattle beginning in the 1990s. The decrease in vultures led to an increase in feral dogs that has been associated with an increased incidence of rabies and other diseases, according to an article published in the scientific journal Nature in 2004.\r\n\r\nStrongholds for vultures are also strongholds for most other wildlife, especially vulnerable large carnivore populations, such as lions and wild dogs, as well as a host of other species that are less visible than raptors and consequently, less capable of signalling that something is wrong in their habitats."},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","image":"","text":"An abundance and diversity of raptors invariably signals a largely undisturbed ecosystem supporting an abundance of other wildlife.","author_name":"Professor Ian Newton","author_profession_organization":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Ultimately, the Global Raptor Impact Network App was funded by The Peregrine Fund in conjunction with GRIN using Esri\u2019s ArcGIS Mobile SDK for Android and iOS. It is provided by The Peregrine Fund as a free tool for conducting raptor research that works happily offline\u2014which is essential when working in remote parts of Africa\u2014and seamlessly uploads to the enterprise database when the device becomes connected to the internet.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h2>The Role of Raptors in Protecting Ecosystems<\/h2>\r\nThe loss of vultures and other raptors from Africa may be far more consequential than the loss of elephants, rhinos, and other higher-profile species that monopolize popular attention and funding. Raptors are indicators of environmental health. They are highly effective as \u201ccanaries in the coal mine\u201d that provide early warning when vital earth support systems are threatened.\r\nAs notable raptor researcher Professor Ian Newton put it, \u201cAn abundance and diversity of raptors invariably signals a largely undisturbed ecosystem supporting an abundance of other wildlife.\u201d\r\nFor more information, contact Rob Davies at <a href=\"mailto:rob.davies@habitatinfo.com\">rob.davies@habitatinfo.com<\/a>.\r\n<h2>Acknowledgment<\/h2>\r\nA word of thanks to Esri and its associates. Whenever I have approached Esri for help with my many and varied conservation projects around the world, it has always helped creatively. I guess the culture that has arisen from a company, originally called Environmental Systems Research Institute, and the people who built it have great empathy for the environment. Thank you to Esri for helping raptors and other wildlife. It is very much appreciated."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Helping Safeguard Threatened Raptors Worldwide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rob Davies is the director of Habitat Info Ltd., a global technology company that specializes in the capture, management, analysis, and distribution of spatial data. 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