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Posted: 14th January 2013

Text message alerts trialled to curb poaching
Kenya Wildlife Service hope to reduce poaching using text messages

 An alarm system will be installed that alerts rangers to possible poachings by text message. The system will be connected to fences around parks and wildlife sanctuaries, producing a very loud sound when a animal or person interferes with the fence. This is then relayed to the security switchboard as a text message showing the location, so that reinforcement can be sent to the area.

The measure follows the massacre of an entire family of elephants in Kenya last week. This killing of 11 elephants in Tsavo National Park is reportedly the worst recorded elephant slaughter in the country.

Despite hopes that the new alarm system will help to reduce poaching by 90%, Patrick Omondi, head of the species department at KWS says it would be impossible to install the system in the larger parks due to costs, and the lack of fencing in some. Tsavo national park for example, is about the size of Belgium.

"Some parks are very big and the idea would only work in conservancies which have a much smaller land area," he said.

It is thought by the Kenya Wildlife Service that technology will be key in future efforts to curb poaching. Omondi adds:

"Kenya adopted a DNA-profiling technology from South Africa called the rhinoceros DNA index. In case a rhino horn is intercepted in any part of the world, KWS can profile the root of the horn,"

Elephant poaching and ivory smuggling has been on the rise across Africa, cited by the WWF as being largely due to increasing demand for items such as ivory ornaments and jewellery from consumers in south-east Asia. Governent figures indicate that Kenya alone lost more than 360 elephants last year, and Southern Africa as a whole lost a record of 668 rhinos to poaching. These figures are up by almost 50% on 2011 figures.



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