Lindbergh Foundation Establishes Air Shepherd Program

The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation recently announced its new Air Shepherd program, an innovative approach that uses advanced technology to stop the massive poaching of elephants and rhinos in Africa. At the present rate of killing, it is estimated that there will be no elephants or rhinos in the wild in ten years.

“About 40,000 elephants were killed last year to supply the ivory trade to China”, said foundation president, John Petersen, “but we have a way, using drones and advanced supercomputer-based predictive analysis, to literally stop this in its tracks. When we fly, the poaching stops.”

The Air Shepherd program marries small sophisticated drone aircraft (carrying night vision cameras) with the world’s best computer-based predictive capability (from the University of Maryland) to provide a capability that lets the silent, little airplanes that see in the night, know just where to fly in order to find the poacher before he kills the animal. Operators on the ground radio information about the incoming poacher to prepositioned rangers who immediately move to thwart the threat. Quietly developed and tested for two years with an investment of $2 million, this capability has proven to be extraordinarily effective in over 1000 hours of flying. No elephants or rhinos were lost anywhere and anytime they flew.

The aircraft carry no weapons, only cameras and a handful of other sophisticated technologies that provide navigation, stabilization and communication capabilities. The images from the drones are transmitted to operators on the ground at the same time as they are captured. Electric motors power the planes, so they are essentially invisible and silent when flying.

The Lindbergh Foundation has launched a major crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to field drone teams for the seven African countries that have indicated an interest of implementing this new capability. “We have the distinct potential of being able to turn the tables on this threatening trend in a very short time,” said Petersen. “Once we have these teams in the field, our experience says that the killing starts to rapidly grind to a stop.”

FMI: www.lindberghfoundation.org