Soon I'll be giving a shout out to a technology partner in Australia, Pro'sChoice, they have been a fantastic help. For now though I just want to quickly comment on a small piece tweeted earlier today at @WildTigerNews entitled Social Media are a Threat to Wildlife. Please read the piece, it raises issues that many of us have been increasingly concerned about.
We seem to live in this age of the hero photographer/social media poster who are pretty much hooked on "likes" and to those of us dinosaurs who existed in a world before social media it can be pretty funny observing this peacock behaviour. There is the upside of course, seeing fantastic images of wildlife. But there is a deadly serious side to their misadventure. It's been well documented how wildlife crime groups pour over social media to get locations of wildlife for poaching. It's similar to the situation where wildlife traffickers have people who pose as tourists in National Parks etc, I've expressed before my deep concern at the way the tourism industry has many operators who invade wildlife space far too much anyway.
I've got hundreds of images and video I'd love to show people but I won't for the very reasons mentioned. I'm really selective about what goes online. The safety and privacy of wildlife has to be the priority. The video here of the rhino shows the magnificence of these animals but making sure the location is kept secret is fundamental responsibility.
Using remote cameras for use in research, human-wildlife conflict mitigation and anti-poaching is a high tech way of making progress. There are many different types of cameras for use in different applications, it's not just a matter of strapping a camera to a tree and hoping for the best. These eyes in the jungle require a skill set born out of knowledge of wildlife behaviour. The advent of real time notification is a hugely useful tool and WildTiger together with other stakeholders is helping develop this technology for the good of wildlife and the people living with wildlife.
But it has to be done properly. There are too many news reports plus peacock behaviour putting wildlife at risk. This only adds to an already difficult task...
