Drones can help protect rhinos in real-time with text messages!

Our latest publication in the journal PeerJ describes how we’ve developed a model to protect rhino using drones. The drones fly overhead and collect video of rhino. An AI algorithm is trained to identify rhino in the video frames and then reports back via a text message to wildlife managers on the ground who are able, with knowledge of the rhino locations, to protect them more effectively with anti-poaching unit deployment. Until now it was difficult to do this in a low-connectivity setting, but we worked around this with SMS text messages and more efficient AI models. The next step? To use the drones to map rhino trails and understand how they’re using their environment!