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TRACKING GREVY'S ZEBRA

Technology for Conservation

Save The Elephants (STE) has pioneered collaring technology in Africa and field tested the GPS-GSM collars on elephants. STE then developed the same technology to work on zebras under the Tracking Animals for Conservation Project supported by Safaricom and together with Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and the Northern Rangelands Trust deployed these collars in June 2006.

How does a GPS-GSM collar work?

GPS (Global Positioning System) is a device which can tell us our position on the earth’s surface, together with other information such as date, time and elevation. A GPS is fitted into the zebra collar so that we can set it give us the zebra’s position, in this case every hour.

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is what most mobile phone systems operate with. So, effectively, the positions of collared zebras are being communicated via mobile phone technology to a central server in Nairobi. We can then access the data via the internet using a special password given to project partners.

Secrets that the collars give away

Since the zebra collars were deployed in June 2006, a team of partners has got together under a Memorandum of Understanding to analyse the data.* Using the data from the collars we are in the process of uncovering unique information on Grevy’s zebra that has never been known before.

• Identification of hotspots
• Seasonal use of the landscape
• Daily, weekly, monthly ranging behaviour
• Use of and access to water
• Ranging behaviour under different land management types
• Movements in relation to predator abundance

Conservation impact

This information allows us to:

• Focus our conservation efforts on key areas
• Improve access to key ecological variables, such as water and grazing through planning and management
• Address social variables such as lack of security and education.

*The team includes the Grevy’s Zebra Trust, Kenya Wildlife Service, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Marwell Conservation, Northern Rangelands Trust, Princeton University and Save The Elephants.

by eyedesign, nairobi, kenya