Endangered Animals Are Being Poisoned In Zimbabwe. Drones Are Flying To The Rescue.

[MachineGhost]

Instead of using guns to kill elephants and rhinoceroses, some poachers in Zimbabwe have begun poisoning the animals’ water with cyanide ― a practice some activists believe could be curbed by flying drones over parks in the African country.

Although drone usage hasn’t been proven to stop the killing of elephants, anti-poaching program Air Shepherd is prepared to use monitoring to help stop people from poisoning animals. The organization already flies drones over parks in three southern Africa countries at night to patrol for gun-toting poachers.

Getting the operation off the ground ― literally ― has become especially urgent since eight elephant carcasses, with their tusks cut off, were found near Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park in two separate incidents last month, Air Shepherd said. The suspected cause of death, according to news reports, is cyanide, which has been used to kill hundreds of elephants in recent years.

“The biggest problem that we have is that ivory is a business,” said Otto Werdmuller Von Elgg, the CEO of UAV and Drone Solutions, a business partnering with the Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation to run the Air Shepherd program.

“The poaching of the animals is the last thing that people want to solve. It’s a disgrace, but the money is just too good,” Werdmuller Von Elgg said.

There’s a lucrative market for illegal elephant ivory in Asia, as consumers there purchase decorative chopsticks, pendants and knickknacks made from tusks. And some cultures believe that rhino horn has medicinal properties that can cure a wide variety of ailments, from cancer to epilepsy to hangovers. However, there is no proof that the substance has any health benefits. Rhino horn sells for about $30,000 a pound, according to Air Shepherd, compared to about $20,250 for the same amount of gold.

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