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  3. The Trees Have Eyes A An elaborate combination of technologies is being deployed to try to curb the illegal hunting of endanger

The Trees Have Eyes A An elaborate combination of technologies is being deployed to try to curb the illegal hunting of endanger

admin2011-01-14  62
问题                              The Trees Have Eyes
A  An elaborate combination of technologies is being deployed to try to curb the illegal hunting of endangered species. Nouabal6-Ndoki national park, in the Republic of Congo, is 4,200 square kilometres of virgin tropical forest that is as densely populated with elephants and great apes as it is sparsely populated with rangers. There are 14 of them, and they have failed to nab a single poacher for more than a year. That is not for lack of illegal hunting in the park. Demand for ivory is up, driven largely by consumers in Japan and an increasingly wealthy China. The value of meat from elephants, apes and other animals has also risen as loggers and miners move deeper into the country’s forests. Nor is this a problem confined to Congo. Last year poachers are estimated to have killed more than 23,000 African elephants. According to a study by the University of Washington, that is about one in 17 of the continent’s total.
B  Nouabal6-Ndoki’s hard-pressed rangers are, however, about to get some high-tech help in the form of TrailGuard, a system of small and easily hidden electronic detection and communication devices. They will soon begin burying radio-transmitting metal detectors alongside elephant trails leading into the park. Authorised hikers through the park will be given transponders that tell the detectors who they are, as with the "identification friend-or-foe" systems on military aircraft. But when poachers carrying rifles or machetes traipse by a detector, it will send a radio signal to a treetop antenna. Seconds later the rangers will receive the intruder’s co-ordinates on their satellite phones. They will then be able to respond precisely, rather than slogging around on fruitless and demoralising patrols on the off-chance of catching a poacher up to no good.
C  TrailGuard is the brainchild of Steve Gulick, an electrical engineer turned biologist who recently left the State University of New York (SUNY) to set up a not-for-profit organisation called Wildland Security, to promote his idea. Besides catching more (or, indeed, any) poachers, he hopes his invention will also prove to be an example of an idea from another one-time electrical engineer, Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke’s Third Law, as it is known to fans of his sciencefiction writing, is that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Many people in Congo do believe in magic and Mr Gulick does not propose to disabuse them of the notion. Local people will receive no explanation for the rangers’ new powers. That, Mr Gulick hopes, will discourage potential poachers from turning thought into deed.
D  Nor are metal detectors the only magic to be deployed. Small fire detectors hidden in trees should add to the anti-poaching unit’s reputation for clairvoyance. Poachers frequently smoke meat from their kills to preserve it during transport to market. Like the metal detectors, the fire detectors will alert the rangers by satellite phone, allowing them to swoop as from nowhere. Congo is not the only country about to apply technology to conservation. In Costa Rica’s Osa reserve two wildlife-preservation groups are testing similar metal-detector and satellite technology  intended to curb the poaching of exotic birds (sold to pet stores) and jaguars (killed for their fur, or because they eat livestock). The project is expected to work well because, as in the Congo, lush vegetation makes it difficult to avoid trails, where most surveillance equipment can be set up.
E  Whether such equipment will work outside forests has yet to be tested, but there are reasons to hope it might. In savannahs, for example, traffic moves toward or away from watering holes—and brush, sand and slopes keep most vehicles on tracks. The Galapagos Islands, a prime target for unlicensed hunting, has few practicable landing spots for boats and passages through the volcanic-rock landscape. Given that animals have established breeding grounds, this dictates poachers’ movements, says James Gibbs, who works at SUNY’s environmental-science department. He is testing a metal-detector-and-satellite system at a place on Isabela, the largest of the islands, where giant tortoises gather. At the moment, the animals are often killed by poachers for their meat, their shells and a fatty gel that can be clarified into a tasty cooking oil. If Dr Gibbs has his way, this will soon stop.
F  Yet another place where anti-poaching sensors will soon be deployed is the Shavla Wildlife Refuge in Russia’s Altai Republic. This is one of the few remaining strongholds of the snow leopard. Shavla’s anti-poaching brigades vie with those of Nouabal6-Ndoki in the difficulty of their task. Though they have a mere 2,500 square kilometres to patrol (as opposed to 4,200), they have only 12 men and the land is mountainous. Snow leopard skins sell for up to $3,000 in China, "where they are used as a nice rug," says Misha Paltsyn, a local conservationist and the head of Arkhar, a nature-conservation organisation based in Altai’s capital, Gorno-AI-taisk.  In the autumn Arkhar will begin hiding heat detectors with satellite links in the refuge’s unattended cabins. As with Nouabal6-Ndoki, authorised visitors will be given transponders. Unauthorised ones will get an unexpected visit shortly after they fire up the stove.
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