Mobile Apps Helping Conserve Africa Wildlife
Half of Africa wildlife species are endangered and face extinction. A rampant population increase has left ravaging impacts on ecosystems and wildlife. Open lands, vegetation, water that is feeding and breeding grounds for wildlife has been drastically reduced to cater for the growing population. Uncertain weather patterns, illegal poaching and trafficking, are also on the rise and are a significant driver in the Africa biodiversity and wildlife extinction.
In response to these threats, mobile developers have created applications that help solve wildlife and conservation issues. These apps offer innovative ways to protect wildlife by helping to identify, understand species, monitor wildlife status and movements, record sightings of targeted wildlife or report suspicious activities. Through the apps, considerable progress has been made in protecting threatened and endangered species and conserving biodiversity.
Here are applications addressing issues concerning wildlife and conservation in Africa
WILDLIFE INFORMATION AND LANDSCAPE DATA (WILD)
WILD is a cloud-based system and open source app that supports improved collection, sharing, analysis of biodiversity data. The mobile application helps community game scouts collect information and immediately relay it back to conservancy headquarters. Monthly, the collected data is shared as a visual representation to various stakeholders of a particular conservancy. The shareholders get to learn about the density of wildlife in their area and from the data in maps, they develop conservation strategies that suit a specific area.
The app data also helps to track the evolving habitats of territorial animals. It shows an increase or decreases in the population of certain wildlife in different seasons. It also identifies areas that need more focus, like experiencing poaching incidents or other illegal activities hotspots that need more security presence. WILD has Swahili language option, and its visuals make it friendly and easier to use for semi-literate users.
The app was developed by iLabAfrica, an ICT innovation and development department of Strathmore University.
iNaturalist
iNaturalist is a website dedicated to wildlife observation and has apps on Android and iOS. The app has a global community of biologists, naturalists and citizen scientists who record, identify, share and teach one another about nature while creating high quality citizen science data for science and conservation.
While on the app, one can snap or upload pictures of plants and animals, and the app can identify the species or family it belongs to through image recognition. If the app cannot recognize the name of the plant or animal, one can share the pictures with the members of the community who help in identifying. The app also allows one to see photos from their location, search photos by location or species.
After uploading your pictures or observations to iNaturlist, there is an option of sharing the photos to be used for research work. For African countries with insufficient data, the app helps identify areas with abundant or threatened animals and plants to help to protect from extinction. By uploading such data, scientists can update their knowledge of plants and animals’ distribution across the region. The open data app is also precious to scientist’s research projects, conservation agencies and the public.
iNaturalist is also known as the google of nature and wildlife and is a joint initiative between the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.
BIRDLASSSER
BirdLasser is a citizen science application that maps the current distribution of Africa’s bird species and describes their status. The free mobile app allows the public record bird sightings, share with friends and community and effortlessly to contribute to conservation efforts through crowdsourcing. By sharing their observations, they tell the story of changing bird distribution and richness in the region. When a user snaps pictures of a bird, all critical information, including location, time is recorded and forwarded to conservationists or conservation bodies.
The conservation crowdsourcing medium app brings together people interested in bird watching, conserving Africa’s diverse birdlife or exploring new and fascinating different parts of the continent.
Recent findings indicate Africa’s birds are being driven into extinction. Illegal trade, conversion of land for agriculture and infrastructure, logging, pollution, powerline collisions, over-exploitation of natural resources are driving birds decline.
BirdLasser is the brainchild of South Africa duo William Harris and Henk Nel and is available on Android, iOS, and Windows phones.
The Kingdon Guide to African Mammals
The mobile application is an essential field guide for those visiting and living in Africa with interest in its wildlife. The guide provides information on identification, number, ecology, relationships and conservation status of mammal species throughout Africa. It also gives introductory profiles that summarize the characteristics of each mammal group. Users can select a particular country, and the app will display a list with only species from that country. The app also saves and store personal mammals list sightings of a user, but once the app is deleted, the list is lost.
The guide is based on the classic Jonathan Kingdon’s Pocket Guide, where he shares a unique combination of his extensive field experience and artistic talent. While the guide saves one from carrying bulky books to the wild, its only available on iOS as a paid version.
South African Mammals Field Guide
South Africa Mammal Field Guide lets wildlife enthusiasts discover about critically endangered species or how many are left. The user gets to know if the species are stable or the population is increasing or decreasing. The free app is built using the latest data from a variety of wildlife conservation organizations, have images and detailed natural history of each mammal. In the guide, species are sorted by their conservation status, remaining number and in alphabetical order.
The wildlife protection application is available on Android and iOS phones.
iDopt App
iDOPT is global funding, wildlife conservation and education application that allows users to adopt orphaned and endangered wildlife. The app technology establishes a closer, more engaging connection between a donor and wildlife through visuals and stories. Users are regularly updated with new photos, videos and stories about their adopted animals from the time its cared for and time it’s released back to the wild. Users can also track the amount of funding the animal has received and the amount needed for further survival. The app recognizes top funding contributors. Through games and quizzes, iDOPT users are also tested on their knowledge about wildlife and rewarded with wildlife badges. Partnership with wildlife sanctuaries allows constant addition of new animal that needs adoption.
IDOPT is made up of individuals passionate about making a difference through educating children, collaborating with conservationists, helping local communities or using technology solutions to support these efforts.
The app is available on iOS.
Apps making a milestone in the battle to protect endangered species will continue to be updated.