{"id":267482,"date":"2019-09-18T06:37:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T13:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=267482"},"modified":"2025-09-04T13:05:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:05:04","slug":"african-parks-track-animals","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/african-parks-track-animals","title":{"rendered":"African Parks Uses Tracking to Combat Poaching and Protect Animals"},"author":871,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","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":[422802,1051],"tags":[287702,1291,21622,131,279602],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478412],"esri_blog_department":[478222],"class_list":["post-267482","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation","category-real-time-gis","tag-africa","tag-conservation","tag-digital-twin","tag-sensors","tag-wildlife","esri-blog-category-wildlife","esri_blog_department-conservation-and-environment"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"African Parks uses location intelligence to track wildlife and battle poachers, and in the process learns more about animal behavior.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"Key Takeaways\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>African Parks uses tracking collars to gain awareness of animals' locations and to monitor for the signs of agitation that signal the presence of poachers.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Tracking devices and other tools have helped to improve animal survival rates and as peace has returned, the animals have displayed more relaxed behavior.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>African Parks works towards a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/digital-twin\/overview\">digital twin<\/a> to improve its understanding of the complexity of its parks and wildlife.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"In 2017, officials at Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo observed something alarming about the behavior of the 1,200 elephants they protect.\r\n\r\nMany of the park\u2019s elephants wear tracking collars and Garamba staff use a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/what-is-gis\/overview\">geographic information system (GIS)<\/a> to study the animals\u2019 movements on a digital map. The GIS displays elephants\u2019 positions and movements in real time as icons on the map and the color of the icon reveals how quickly an elephant is moving.\r\n\r\nOn a computer screen, the staff could see when all the animals would converge hastily in one area of the park. This was not normal behavior for elephants, which typically travel in smaller herds led by a matriarch. Reports from park rangers on the ground confirmed that something was frightening the animals. Their instinctive response was to seek safety in numbers.\r\n\r\nThe data painted a clear picture of what was happening. Poachers, who hunt elephants and sell the tusks on the black market for ivory, had returned.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis condensation of elephants happened at a time when we had a reasonably high number of collars and a high level of poaching,\u201d Naftali Honig, Garamba\u2019s director of research and development and anti-poaching information coordinator for African Parks, said recently. \u201cI flew over the herd so I could see it for myself.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe GIS allowed the staff to visualize the state of the assets the park protected, while firsthand observation validated the conclusion and helped rangers take action."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":267772,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<strong>Confronting the Persistence of Poachers<\/strong>\r\n\r\nKeeping wildlife in African protected areas safe from poachers is always a challenge. Familiar with the area and comfortable living off the land, poachers come and go with relative ease. The problem isn't limited to Garamba. Increased poaching activity in Zakouma National Park in Chad devastated the elephant population, which dropped from 4,500 to 400 between 2002 and 2010. In the 1970s, Garamba's herd included 22,000 elephants. By 2017, it had dropped to 1,200.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn Zakouma, the herd was so condensed, they\u2019d walk next to one another like sardines,\" said Geoff Clinning, technology development director for African Parks Network, the conservation nonprofit that manages 15 protected areas in partnership with governments across the African continent, including Garamba and Zakouma National Parks. \"That\u2019s the only way they thought they were safe. They were running unbelievably scared.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn the past three years, Garamba has reduced elephant poaching by 97 percent. The effort has included coordination with law enforcement and local communities\u2014and a very shrewd approach to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/location-intelligence\/overview\">location intelligence<\/a>."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":267742,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<strong>Disrupting Supply Chains<\/strong>\r\n\r\nGIS is often used by businesses to manage supply chains; in an interconnected economically transnational world, the technology helps people visualize the assembly of parts and the movement of products. Garamba\u2019s staff members accomplished an inversion. They <em>disrupted\u00a0<\/em>poaching\u2019s illicit supply chain by using location intelligence to better understand the movement of poachers.\r\n\r\nThe strength of GIS is the way it presents multiple data sources as layers on the common canvas of a map. For Garamba, it allowed staff to see things that were otherwise hidden. Aerial photography analysis pointed to the expansion of trail systems. Wildfire patterns suggested new places poachers might approach or avoid. Poachers usually follow waterways, and GIS revealed probable river-crossing points.\r\n\r\nThe data helped direct the well-trained rangers toward places they were likely to intercept poachers. Arrests have increased, elephant poaching has been dramatically reduces, the population has been rebounding, and stability has returned for people and wildlife thanks to a combination of smart law enforcement and community development.\r\n\r\n\u201cThrough our partnership with the Government of Chad, we\u2019ve been able to secure Zakouma and the elephants are breeding again,\u201d Clinning said. \u201cThey still hang out quite often as a group, but they\u2019ll also go off and have time by themselves before returning to the main herd.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI call it a relaxation of behavior,\u201d Honig said. \u201cIf a gunshot goes off in a remote corner of the park, the herd will immediately head toward the center, but we haven\u2019t seen that agglomeration. We observe elephants by sitting next to them, but we\u2019ve also had enough digital observation to see what different patterns look like.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":271472,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Center","content":"<strong>Providing Enough Safety to Reintroduce Endangered Species<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe worldwide appetite for the rhino\u2019s horn\u2014used in some traditional medicines and also coveted as a status symbol\u2014has brought the animal close to extinction.\r\n\r\n\u201cA rhino walks around with $300,000 on the end of its nose,\u201d said Geoff Clinning, technology development director for African Parks, referring to the high value of rhinos for poachers. \u201cWhile the incentive for poaching will always be there, what this technology has given us is the ability to understand where that asset is. If you can track that animal, you understand where your high-value assets are.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn 2017, 10 years after the last black rhino was spotted in Akagera National Park in Rwanda, African Parks and the Rwandan government began an ambitious plan to reintroduce the species. Over the past two years, 23 rhinos\u2014drawn from zoos and reserves around the world\u2014have made Akagera their home.\r\n\r\nThe stakes are very high. Fewer than 5,000 black rhinos exist in the wild in Africa. To maximize their chances of thriving in Akagera, the rhinos are surveilled extremely closely with tracking devices inserted into their horns. As with the Congo park, this sensor data works in tandem with more traditional protection methods, such as aerial surveillance and a dog-driven K-9 anti-poaching unit.\r\n\r\nThe decision to fit the rhinos with tracking devices brings African Parks closer to implementing a digital twin approach to system analysis, in which every real-world attribute has a virtual component in the geographic information system.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe idea of replicating everything, I find that a very interesting concept for protected areas,\u201d said Naftali Honig, Garamba\u2019s director of research and development and anti-poaching information coordinator for the African Parks. \u201cSo many companies in so many sectors utilize that concept. They make a digital twin for everything, especially assets. And that\u2019s a lot like what we do. It\u2019s unrealistic to think we could put a tag on every single animal, but as the technology progresses, we can get closer to that digital twin.\u201d","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<strong>Revealing Animal Secrets<\/strong>\r\n\r\nFor African Parks, using the location intelligence capability of GIS isn\u2019t merely a defense, a way to guard against illegal activities. Location intelligence also helps officials better understand the assets it protects. The parks are increasingly becoming sensor-heavy Internet of Things (IoT) environments. Rangers carry instruments that collect data and documenting animals presence in remote areas, with everything fed back to the GIS.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe kind of IoT devices that are already used in industry and city environments are really finding their way into conservation,\u201d Clinning said.\r\n\r\nThe work is yielding fascinating data that helps scientists understand the supply chains the parks protect\u2014natural ecosystems\u2014in granular detail.\r\n\r\n\u201cHistorically, the understanding was that a lion is a lion, a leopard is a leopard, and a cheetah is a cheetah,\u201d Clinning said. \u201cAs we broaden that knowledge, we begin to understand that a lion can behave completely differently when it's living in a forest in Ethiopia. We\u2019re learning that in some of the remote places we now work in, there\u2019s very little understanding of how a species operates.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":267852,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<strong>Seeing the World<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAt Garamba, the many sources of sensor data come together in the centralized environment of the park\u2019s control room. Data streams are processed and analyzed, in near-real time, giving park directors a global sense of activity in the park. Potential threats, such as fires and gunshots, appear on the GIS map, helping staff allocate ranger resources. Since elephants are so keenly attuned to poachers and other threats, the GIS effectively leverages the intelligence of these animals themselves to aid in their protection.\r\n\r\nThis enhanced knowledge also helps park managers better understand how human populations around the parks interact with the land. Location intelligence can help staff distinguish between poachers and refugees moving across the border that the park shares with Sudan. This lets the staff work with local populations who still depend on regulated harvesting.\r\n\r\nThis increased data gathering will inevitably reveal patterns that cursory analysis won\u2019t detect. African Parks is investigating ways to apply artificial intelligence techniques to park management. Along with using GIS defensively to combat poaching and as a way to improve present knowledge, park managers hope to add a new layer. Machine learning will help them plan for the future.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe\u2019re getting to the point where predictive models can be very helpful for protective area management,\u201d Honig said. \u201cWe want to replicate the way we, as humans, do protective modeling\u2014but just make the machine do it better.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nLearn more about how location technology is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/conservation\/overview\">contributing to conservation efforts<\/a>\u00a0and learn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africanparks.org\/donate\">how\u00a0you can help<\/a>\u00a0African Parks to secure parks for the benefit of people and wildlife across Africa.\r\n\r\n<em>(The opener image of elephants in Garamba National Park was taken by David Santiago Garcia and provided by African Parks.)<\/em>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"youtube","youtube_video_url":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/1MAcCPZ-4lU"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Center","content":"<strong>Streamlining a Powerful Tool to Impact Operations<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAfrican Parks was challenged by information overload when it presented the array of GIS visualization and analysis options to those working in the control room at Garamba National Park.\r\n\r\nEvan Trotzuk, cyberinfrastructure officer for African Parks, helped simplify the user interface and focus it on specific park security workflows using the <a href=\"https:\/\/pro.arcgis.com\/en\/pro-app\/sdk\/\">ArcGIS Pro Software Development Kit<\/a>. Coding the customized solution presented a slight learning curve to Trotzuk, because he hadn\u2019t coded in C# before. He found resources on GitHub and soon figured out the basic syntax.\r\n\r\nTrotzuks\u2019 efforts reduced training time for park rangers and helped maintain their attention on park security. The unique configuration allows control room operators to gather and analyze sensor data in real-time; visualize data; and track special elements like patrol position, elephant speed, and location of ground patrols.\r\n\r\nLearn more about how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/arcgis-pro\/overview\">ArcGIS Pro supports<\/a> data visualization, advanced analysis and authoritative data maintenance in 2D and 3D.","snippet":""}],"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>African Parks Uses Tracking to Combat Poaching and Protect Animals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"African Parks uses location intelligence to track wildlife and battle poachers, and in the process gains a greater understanding of animal behavior.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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