To Crack Down On Rhino Poaching, Authorities Turn To Drones

[LanternWaste]

"A crowd of wildlife rangers gathered on a woody hillside in Nepal last year to try something they'd never done before. A man held what looked like an overgrown toy airplane in his right hand, arm cocked as if to throw it into the sky. As his fellow rangers cheered, he did just that. A propeller took over, sending it skyward.

The craft was an unmanned aerial vehicle, also known as a drone, though not the military kind. Its wingspan was about 7 feet, and it carried only a video camera that filmed the forest below.

The flight was a test run sponsored and videotaped by the World Wildlife Fund. "It's a cat-and-mouse game when it comes to getting ahead of poachers," explains Matt Lewis, a WWF wildlife biologist who helped set up the test. Lewis says poachers are getting more sophisticated. "When poachers are starting to use night vision technology, and when poachers are starting to use tranquilizer drugs to silently dart an animal and cut off its horns at night and get out at night ... it's incumbent upon us to find a better solution to address that."

As the war in Afghanistan winds down, Lewis says, drone manufacturers are "coming out of the woodwork," looking for new customers for downsized and cheaper versions of their unmanned military aircraft. Governments are sensitive about the connotations. "Drone has a very negative context around the world," Lewis says, "primarily due to the military use."


http://www.npr.org/2013/06/11/188638982/to-crack-down-on-rhino-poaching-authorities-turn-to-drones


Kinda happy to see these things being put to good use.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Aren't drones bad?

Doesn't Monsanto make drones?

[LanternWaste]

2. I don't pretend to know...

I don't pretend to know... others are so much better at pretending one way or the other in that regard. I'm simply happy to see the good guys get the upper hand, if only for the time being.

[Buzz Clik]

3. +1

[KamaAina]

4. Google is funding this

kind of a burr under my saddle, since they don't give a thin dime to social needs right under their noses in Silicon Valley. Yes, we have some.

[LanternWaste]

5. I completely understand the concern.

I completely understand the concern. But at the end of the day, the environment is my number one priority and my pet cause, and where the majority of any charitable money I give out goes to, regardless of nation; so I run a quick, informal cost-benefit analysis (social, money and politics) in my head, and if a thing comes out on top, then I get behind it. To be honest, Kim Jong Un (sic?) could be underwriting this, and I'd still be supportive.