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East Africa Community / Feed

 The East Africa Community is WILDLABS first regional hub. This group creates a space to foster connections and collaboration between conservation and technology players in the Silicon Savannah.

Group curators

Agripina Cletus
Frankfurt Zoological Society
As a wildlife conservationist, I am deeply committed to nature conservation, community empowerment, and wildlife research in Tanzania. I've actively engaged in community-based projects, passionately advocating for integrating local communities into conservation.
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event

9ICCGIS 2024

CathyNj

27 March 2024 2:28pm

The 9th International Conference on Cartography and GIS will take place in Nessebar, Bulgaria on 16-21 June 2024.

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discussion

Lion Deterrence

Rokshana Bushra

29 February 2024 9:59pm

Hello! We are a group of students at UC Berkeley working to design a lion deterrence system that is more affordable and cost-effective for community livestock protection and human...

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Kim Lane

4 March 2024 5:34am

I remember the study in EA when they painted cows with zebra strips to stop the Tsetse fly bites. Sometimes it is the simplest things that work

Read "Cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid biting fly attack | PLOS One" on

Cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid biting fly attack | PLOS One

Experimental and comparative studies suggest that the striped coats of zebras can prevent biting fly attacks. Biting flies are serious pests of livestock that cause economic losses in animal production. We hypothesized that cows painted with black and white stripes on their body could avoid biting fly attacks and show fewer fly-repelling behaviors. Six Japanese Black cows were assigned to treatments using a 3 × 3 Latin-square design. The treatments were black-and-white painted stripes, black painted stripes, and no stripes (all-black body surface). Recorded fly-repelling behaviors were head throw, ear beat, leg stamp, skin twitch, and tail flick. Photo images of the right side of each cow were taken using a commercial digital camera after every observation and biting flies on the body and each leg were counted from the photo images. Here we show that the numbers of biting flies on Japanese Black cows painted with black-and-white stripes were significantly lower than those on non-painted cows and cows painted only with black stripes. The frequencies of fly-repelling behaviors in cows painted with black-and-white stripes were also lower than those in the non-painted and black-striped cows. These results thus suggest that painting black-and-white stripes on livestock such as cattle can prevent biting fly attacks and provide an alternative method of defending livestock against biting flies without using pesticides in animal production, thereby proposing a solution for the problem of pesticide resistance in the environment.

Rob Appleby

8 March 2024 2:52pm

Hi @rokshanabushra 

So are you looking to replicate something like this?

https://predatorguard.com/products/predator-deterrent-light

This is, in principle at least, fairly simple, as it's really just some red LEDs and a small solar-battery power system. You could buy one of the commercial options and do a teardown (or I can do it if you like, as I'd be interested to find out exactly what they are doing). 

In lieu of that, I suspect a light-dependent resistor is probably used to control the lights coming on at night (i.e. something along these lines: https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Make-LDR-Darkness-Sensor-Circuit-Simple-DIY/).

If you employ some sort of 'blink' or flashing protocol (you could use a 555 timer to keep the costs down), you could save quite a bit of power (compared to running the lights constantly). For example, something along these lines: https://www.instructables.com/Adjustable-SingleDual-LED-Flasher-Using-555-Timer-/ You could also add a PIR motion sensor so it only comes on when nearby motion is detected, but of course the costs of building goes up. 

There are also a few off-the-shelf flasher designs that might be cheap enough already to consider (e.g. https://www.ledsales.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=142_143&products_id=2820). This seems like a reasonably good option for low power, although I have no idea how well it actually works...You can also buy LEDs that flash by themselves (e.g. https://www.ledsales.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=148_152_159&products_id=2951).

If you think sounds might also help (e.g. human noises etc.), check out the Boombox from Freaklabs: https://freaklabs.org/technology/boombox/ and it should be possible to add 'eyes' in the form of reflectors, or, some kind of LEDs that activate at the same time as the sound. You could contact Akiba or Jacinta about it as I am sure they'd help if they can: https://freaklabs.org/about/#:~:text=providers%20including%20ARGOS.-,the%20team,-Chris%20%E2%80%98Akiba%E2%80%99%20Wang

Anyway, happy to help if I can and all the best for the project.

Cheers,

Rob

 

Priyank Shah

8 March 2024 4:11pm

Hi Rokshana,

Maybe you can try this product from India called ANIDERS - 

 I think this product would help you a lot. This is their website - 

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discussion

Reasonable price for drone pilot (south africa)?

Stephanie O'Donnell

27 January 2023 11:20am

Hi everyone, A colleague is looking for a cost check on going rates for drone pilots in South Africa. Is £500-£700 a day reasonable? They'd be flying drones in a project to...

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Quin Clark

16 January 2024 12:21pm

Hello Stephanie,

I am not sure if you are still monitoring this thread, but if you need any information, please let me know. I have flown drones for a couple of years in Zimbabwe and South Africa in conservation and anti-poaching operations. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Regarding the £500-700 range you mentioned, it seems waaaayyyy overpriced. Those rates are usually charged by lawyers and accountants in South Africa.

If you have found the information you were seeking, I wish you all the best.

Quin

Paul Sinclair

26 January 2024 10:39pm

Hi Steph,

I think everyone below has summarised it pretty well.

A couple of comments to add.

Select your pilot well - We offer drone flying services. This wasn't our intention, initially, however we have determined that there are many drone pilots, but fewer who do it really well. Having said that, we work predominantly with animal tracking equipment, not just flying straight line vectors, if this is what you are undertaking.

In Australia, fees to become a pilot are about $5,000 AUD, and a reasonable commercial drone with changeable payload capability costs around $20,000- $30,000 AUD, and then as is suggested below, there are insurance and factoring in repairs and maintenance, and of course eventual replacement costs, travel, an hourly rate as wages etc. Obviously, the day rates you have listed aren't profit, they include cost.

Paul

Wildlife Drones

 

Paul Allin

28 January 2024 4:59pm

Hi, I have used a commercial company for drone work for my PhD and they were willing to give me a significant discount for research purposes. One thing to consider is that in SA a drone pilot requires a pilots license and there is quite some red tape to go through which does make it much more complex than just going out and buying a drone oneself. The price you mention seems on the high side to me but I'm not sure if that already includes the drone, sensors, flight permissions, travel of the pilot to and from your location and any other costs.

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event

Africa Tech Summit London

Esther Githinji

15 January 2024 10:18am

Where African Tech Connects for the 8th Edition this June 7th, 2024. Pre-register for 2024 to join over 300+ delegates and be the first to know when tickets go on sale.

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discussion

Information to the young who are the future

CathyNj

8 January 2024 4:35pm

All our efforts in conservation will be beneficial mostly to the the young. How are you making available your works to them? I try to provide information in simple and fun way to...

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article

Impacts of Rhino Fence on other Wildlife Species

Rita

1 December 2023 9:25am

Hello, My name is Rita Orahle, a Rhino Monitoring Officer from Loisaba Conservancy. In this article, I will give an update on research on the fence and key gained skills and support from the Women in Conservation...

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article

Conservation of endangered birds in Kenya

Cynthia Waithera Gichimu

30 November 2023 12:57pm

 Hello, and welcome to this article. My name is  Cynthia Waithera Gichimu, and I am passionate about bird conservation. I will share with you some of my experiences and insights as a volunteer with two amazing...

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Shakirah Namuli

21 December 2023 4:48am

Amazing work Cynthia, we are also facing the same challenges in Uganda. moreover, the grey crowned crane is our national bird. I wish you all the best. Am a birdwatcher myself
Cynthia Waithera Gichimu

21 December 2023 9:32am

Thank you so much for your kind words Shakirah! It's wonderful to hear from a fellow bird enthusiast in Uganda. The grey crowned crane is indeed a magnificent bird, and it's...
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