Smart Parks

02/02/2023

Great thanks to The for mentioning our work and OpenCollar Initiative in their 2022 Annual Report under Innovation with a global impact!

OpenCollar animal tracking and the Zephyr real-time operating system

The OpenCollar Initiative is a conservation collaboration for designing, supporting, and deploying open source tracking collar hardware and software for wildlife monitoring projects. OpenCollar integrates LoRa, GSM, Bluetooth LE, and GPS technologies for a seamless wildlife monitoring solution based on the Zephyr real-time operating system. By making the hardware and software open source, the OpenCollar Initiative aims to attract and inspire talented students, researchers, and tech- savvy conservationists to develop tracking systems that are more customizable to accommodate the needs of various animals. The OpenCollar Initiative started with the design and deployment of elephant tracking collars and has since expanded. It now provides field-tested solutions for tracking rhinos, lions, cheetahs, wisents, wild dog and other animals.

31/01/2023

Extremely sad and worrying news from Namibia this morning:

"The number of endangered rhinos poached in Namibia last year was the highest on record and almost twice as many as the year before, officials say"

Rhino numbers in Africa have dropped significantly in recent decades to feed the demand for rhino horn in China and Vietnam. Rhino horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine (no proven medical benefit) and horns are displayed as a sign for wealth (?!!).

The last years we've worked, and still work hard, at Smart Parks with all our partners to develop, test and produce the RhinoEdge sensors as a tool to support the protection of these extremely threatened species.

24/12/2022

Team Smart Parks wishes you all happy holidays and a fabulous 2023!

Another trip around the sun and we are very grateful for all the people and partners that we work with and the impact we can make. Drink some champagne, give each other a hug and we’ll see you in the new year🎄🦏

04/11/2022

“There is a huge rhino crisis going on”

interviewed at Schiphol airport before traveling to Hluhuwe-imfolozi park, talking about where he was going, his travel bucket list and dream passenger to sit next to🙌🏻

18/10/2022

‘Rewilding Europe’ an initiative focussed on restoring natural ecological processes and reducing human influence on landscapes. Making Europe a wilder place, with more space for wildlife - this might sound like a utopia, but joined efforts by organizations such as will make it happen.

Many people might think the Smart Parks team is just cruising around the African continent, but we are very much involved in these rewilding initiatives.

Last week, spoke at the symposium on natural grazing. The experience working in the African wilderness, where humans and wildlife widely share their habitat, brings valuable (lost) lessons to the table.

Beautiful drawing by Rewilding Europe

27/09/2022

Seven critically endangered black rhinos and twenty white rhinos have been successfully translocated to Zinave National Park in Mozambique. With this reintroduction, the black rhino has returned to Southern Mozambique which disappeared from the region 40 years ago.

Beyond its extinction in Mozambique, the black rhino suffered a radical decline across its entire native range: between 1960 and present day their numbers, scattered sparsely from Kenya down to South Africa, dropped by 98% to less than 6,000 individuals. Present rhino populations are small and threatened by rising onslaught of poaching.

To maximise the safety of the rhinos in Zinave National Park, they have been fitted with the Smart Parks RhinoEdge Pucks, enabling the near-real time tracking of the animals. Read the full article:

https://www.smartparks.org/news/the-black-rhinos-journey-back-to-zinave-national-park-mozambique/

31/07/2022

WORLD RANGER DAY

I wanted to write “Happy World Ranger Day” but considering the violence that took ranger Anton Mzimba life just last week, the word “happy” feels out of place.

At Smart Parks we believe strongly in the power of technology, but without the men and women on the ground wildlife does not stand a chance. The events from last week remind us once again that what these people do, literally putting their lives on the line, is heroic.

This picture captures just one of the numerous times rangers assisted us in the field. Without them we could not fulfill our mission.

World Ranger Day is celebrated on July 31st each year on the anniversary of the founding of The International Ranger Federation (IRF), an organization that supports the work of rangers as the key protectors of parks and conservation.

Thank you all for what you do🙏🏻🦏🐘

18/07/2022

It is a special day as four European bison haven been released into ancient woodland in Kent early this morning☀️This is the first time in the UK and a milestone for the project and its rewilding efforts. The bison are expected to transform the ecosystem like no other animal can!

Read the full article here: https://www.smartparks.org/news/smart-parks-assists-to-bring-back-the-bison/

01/07/2022

Thank you for sharing the article🐘

Read the full article here: https://www.fastcompany.com/90765199/smart-parks-lora-wireless-poaching?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss

22/06/2022

Thank you and for the great article!

Read the full article:

https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/smart-parks-the-dutch-technologists-tackling-poaching-with-technology/

10/05/2022

Black rhino eartag deployment , thank you @[1784140082766@lovenature] for the fantastic video🦏 and credits to the vet 💪🏻

full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HugkvpjSCsY&t=1s

02/05/2022

Good news for the 'Dutch Wildlife Comeback'!

Utrecht, April 2022 – On March 18th, the Institute for Science in Society (ISiS) received the great news that an Nationale Wetenschapsagenda (NWA/Dutch Research Agenda) 8-year, 5 million research proposal was granted. Fantastic news! The project is called 'The Dutch Wildlife Comeback: Dynamic co-m...