SAFARI
ANIMAL TRACKERS
Student tech watches over wildlife .
BY KATHERINE CONNOR
Wildlife conservation is critical to stemming the loss of threatened and endangered animals . Since the 1970s , it ’ s been estimated that there has been a nearly 70 percent drop in the populations of birds , fish , reptiles , mammals and amphibians on Earth . Protecting these species doesn ’ t just benefit the endangered animals themselves — humans have used animals as inspiration for everything from stronger armor to faster robots , as well as inspiration for novel medical treatments addressing issues such as stroke and diabetes .
But effective conservation efforts call for careful analysis of wildlife populations and their behavior . Engineering students at UC San Diego are now bringing wildlife tracking techniques to the next level thanks to partnerships with the San Diego Zoo — testing new methods of monitoring animals in zoo habitats as well as in the wild .
↑ Eyes in the Sky
In order to track animals tagged with a small radio collar , conservationists used to drive around massive swaths of land as they checked for radio signal emissions to try and find marked animals — a task made even more difficult when objects such as mountains could block the radio signal . Now , students in the Engineers for Exploration program at UC San Diego have developed an aerial mapping system , flying a drone in a set pattern over the target area to map the radio signal propagation and pinpoint exactly where a tagged animal may be . The method is far more efficient than traversing often mountainous terrain , meaning conservation teams can get better data and study more animals in a shorter amount of time . The student team has already deployed the system to study iguana species in the Caribbean , and they ’ re hoping to test recent upgrades to the system — like offline capabilities and a better visualization map — in Turks and Caicos in 2022 . “ Lizards are cold-blooded , so our zoo partners want to track where they go throughout the day and map out the heat in the area to see how that affects their behavior ,” says Mia Lucio , a computer engineering student and team lead .
8 TRITON | FALL 2021