Slashdot Mirror
South Africa Drones For Anti-Rhino-Poaching Patrol
garymortimer writes "The SA National Defence Force is considering using an unmanned drone helicopter to target rhino poachers, Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said yesterday. She told a press conference in Pretoria she wanted state weapons company Denel to further develop an unmanned aerial vehicle it was working on so it could be used to help SA National Parks catch rhino poachers."
The damage done by poachers is enormous. They decimate wild herds of BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
I am against the death penalty, but ...
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
I am a fish! (not a rhino)
Someone send in Ace Ventura.
SA is Suadi Arabia
ZA is South Africa
UHG!
- yummy rootbeer.
Anyone whom the government doesn't like will be labelled a rhino poacher.
How long until the poachers use drones to hunt the rhino?
Good to see something truly useful done with drones. What I do wonder is: won't poachers be able to shoot those things right out of the sky or would they fly too high for that.
I can now imagine poachers with rocket launchers. o_O
Here's the secret to immortality:
Is this the best or worst idea my government has ever had ?
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
I heard that the prototype using rhino horn fibre in the leading edges fly further and does not need de-icing equipment.
test
I guess those rhino's are of military importance after all...
sharks with fricking lasers?
This is a good use for armed hunter killer drones.
How long before the poachers use drones to hunt the rhino?
Preserve our right to arm rhinos.
perhaps we need some drones in parliament watching our politicians. or poachers. poachers in parliament might be better, actually.
Stick a tranquilizer gun in it to knock out the poachers from a distance so that they can be picked up. If they try shooting back, use a sniper rifle on them.
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
Why a helicopter, and not a fixed-wing UAV? Wouldn't it be far more efficient and hence be able to travel much further distances and stay in the air for longer periods of time? Seems more suitable for the large environments that rhinos inhabit.
Unfortunately there is no mention, beyond painting the poacher red, of what weapons the UAV will have.
In South Africa the birds hunt YOU!
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
using these drones to hunt rhinos.
I suggest they use lead paintballs.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
I watched a documentary about the Boers in South Africa. The film said that most folks had three muskets on their horse, and could reload them in the saddle. There is no need for those UAVs ... a Boer on a horse can handle your poacher problems.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Pb Paintballs FTW!
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
Why do people still try to hunt rhinos for 'medicinal' purposes, now that Viagra and Cialis exist? Are these people just congenitally stupid, or what?
Its rather upsetting listening to the local news radio stations on how they're often catching the poachers... far too late. Every week there's a new story about them. *sigh*.
Would be interesting to see poachers arming themselves with AA defenses. Maybe those old South Park episodes, depicting hunting with a bazooka or Apache, were somewhat prophetic.
One that hath name thou can not otter
This is a great application for UAV technology, one that doesn't involve spying on or killing innocent people.
They could hover over the Rhinos and protect them with AI assisted tracking cameras and laser guided missiles. It's a beautiful future.
The summary is the article, they're considering development of a program. The only other tid-bit is "They say it is so good it is able to detect the colour of the shirt of the poacher." Somewhat underwhelming.
Hopefully they can be put to better use in this role, at least there should be less false postives with wedding parties getting mixed up for poachers/talebans.
When a species is this near the edge something drastic needs to be done. If they were hunting the rhino for food I'd have some sympathy , but just to make money selling the horn to halfwit chinese for their idiotic herbal "remedies" or aphrodisiacs is inexcusable. And don't anyone respond with some western moral imperialism argument - we're beyond that niave political nonsense now. If poaching isn't stopped the rhino will soon be gone.
I am thinking that the poachers will use a Rhino outfit like in Ace Ventura... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh2iyPmucFk
What's wrong with hiring flesh and blood people to combat poaching? With over 25% unemployment, you'd think the government could hire people to take them off the unemployed statistics, and for a lot cheaper than the cost of a UAV + salary of its remote pilot.
It sounds awfully like a scheme to help a national company who can't sell enough stuff on the private market to stay afloat. Kind of like the french Rafale airplane, produced by Dassault, whose only customer is the french military.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Bad guys (tm) can use drones too. Let the drone wars begin.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
To target Rhino poachers? Are we talking Hellfire armed Reapers here?
That's one way to deal with the problem I suppose.
preventing poaching i mean.
there was a documentary in discovery or another channel. about a guy who stopped poaching after being put in charge of anti poaching prevention. the african country in this case was having a lot of troubles preventing poaching. poachers were running amok in the face of the rangers, and they were armed with ak47s and other guns. (poachers - actually many tribes in africa are armed with firearms, ak47 most popular)
the guy was an ex military commander in some other country, (west), now working as a mercenary. quite an odd character, not taking jobs which he didnt like.
when he came in charge, he trained the rangers as, well, army rangers, and instructed them to shoot and kill poachers. rangers started killing poachers wherever they were poaching.
poaching stopped.
Read radical news here
Eggs I can understand but how the hell do you poach a rhino anyway? I'm guessing you probably need to peel them first?
the comment system is bugged. Or then nobody cares about South African rhinos.
i saw it in a discovery or other channel documentary. poachers were running amok in the face of park rangers in an african country. naturally, they were armed. they were poaching elephants. (most tribes are armed in africa, ak47 is preferred)
the country hired an ex army man (from west) as the head of the rangers. the guy trained park rangers as army rangers, and had them start to kill poachers. rangers were very effective now, laying in wait in treetops, coming with helicopters and whatnot.
poaching stopped flat out.
Read radical news here
We need planes not helicopters. There is just too much land to cover.
...of the Rhinos?
How can they possibly tell the niggers apart from the other animals?
Ever wonder why you have your rhino and your hippo,and your gator and your croc? Wonder no more !! It's GOD's WORK !! And he did it all in six days, and with a little help from Noah and his ark !!
from ourselves
Once again, weapons technology is used in civil applications to make the world a little better. We've seen that countless times in history already.
Pity that weapons and "defensive" technology so often are used to kill people and to reduce freedom...
Look in Google Earth for Kruger Park. It's the size of a small country and also acts as one of ZA's borders.. The rangers are armed and do shoot to kill but are a bit thin on the ground as the parks are self financing. Poachers are highly organized bunch and also heavily armed. Bit of an uphill battle. Drones are a good idea but knowing our bunch the tender process will kill any chance of it happening. Nod, nod, wink,wink.
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
... it's the only way to be sure.
Turning Rhino into mutant radioactif behemothes should also help the specie survive poaching.
The rangers are armed and do shoot to kill but are a bit thin on the ground as the parks are self financing. Poachers are highly organized bunch and also heavily armed. Bit of an uphill battle.
Thus, the poachers will soon have air superiority as well. And they will get their drones faster than the government or park management - as they do not need to follow any "tender process".
Anyone inventing or deploying a new weapon will get an advantage... but a temporary one. After that, the one with more money or a better incentive to use it will win.
Human poachers poach Rhinos ==> Robot drones poach poachers. There's kind of a poetic justice quality in that, and heightened by the cold threat of robotic killing machines.
Finally, a decent use for drones. Instead of killing people, they save rhinos.
In before "they will use the drones to hunt rhinos." For a bunch of CS majors, you sure don't think logistics through. The nigger jokes are more cerebral.
If they can legally shoot to kill, then arm a heli UAV with some machine guns and turn the poachers into mincemeat >:) Hell I've got plenty of experience in heli combat sims and RC piloting experience, I'll apply for the job!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Think about it. Give each Rhino, or other really rare large mammal, its own small drone that follows it at all times. A more sophisticated form of radio tracking collar.
All your database are belong to U.S.
Why not have rhino farms in which the rhinos are raised, taken care of and then butchered for there parts which are marketable. Then the rhinos won't die off because the ranchers would have incentive to keep their herd alive. The demand for ivory will likely never go away, even after the rhinos do.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
"You know. See, everyone got boners over the technology, and it was pretty incredible. Watching missiles fly down air vents, pretty unbelievable. But couldn't we feasibly use that same technology to shoot food at hungry people? Know what I mean? Fly over Ethiopia, "There's a guy that needs a banana!" SHOOP. The Stealth Banana. Smart fruit! I don't know."
you don't eat crackers in the bed of your future--or else you'll get all scratchy