Drones Catch Poachers, Monitor Engangered Species in Madagascar

A project in Madagascar will bring a new solution to an old problem, as environmentalists use drones to catch poachers and monitor endangered species.

Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc. (CSE: PRT) (OTC: PLRTF) (Frankfurt: 4XA WKN# A2N8RH) (“Plymouth Rock”, “PRT”, or the “Company”), has announced a contract with the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (“Durrell”) to provide the drones for these operations.  PRT drones have been used for military and civil operations including firefighting, search and rescue, security, and inspections.  Now, equipped with thermal infrared cameras, they’ll be used to save a vulnerable population of lemurs.

Trials began 2 years ago in Lac Alaotra, as conservationists from Durrell and researchers from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) studied the use of drone-based thermal infrared cameras as a new way of monitoring the lemurs and identifying any potential poachers. “…the drone would fly over large areas of otherwise inaccessible marshes and detect the lemurs from their body heat, making them much easier to spot and allowing the team to obtain more accurate estimates of their population size,” says the release.  “In a single 20-minute flight, the drone was able to cover a greater area of the marsh than a canoe team could cover in two days, hugely increasing the efficiency of the surveys.”

“….The team immediately envisaged how this exciting technology could be adapted for use at other sites and with other species in Madagascar.”

“This project captivated the entire PRT/Tetra team” stated Carl Cagliarini, Chief Strategy Officer of Plymouth Rock Technologies. “We are honored to have been chosen to supply our UAS technologies to this project and are thrilled to be working with Durrell and LJMU / AI Conservation. AI being used to assist in endangered species conservation is a tremendously important technology application. We also look forward to further collaboration with the team at AI Conservation on both their future efforts and other projects that we have identified that can leverage their capabilities,” concluded Cagliarini.

AI and Drones to Catch Poachers and ID Lemurs

The team will utilize machine learning to detect and classify images, working with UK-based Conservation AI, which specializes in conservation projects. “..we focus on detecting and classifying animals, humans, and man-made objects indicative of poaching (e.g. cars, fires). We focus work with images from visual spectrum and thermal infrared cameras that are used on drones or in camera traps,” says the company. “The aim is to provide a user-friendly workflow that can allow for near-real time detection/classification and non-real time detection/classification.”