Rhino Tracking with the CyberTracker Field Computer

1. What they did

The authors start from a simple idea: trackers learn a great deal about animal behaviour by reading tracks and signs, especially for rare or nocturnal animals that are seldom seen, and a team of trackers on daily patrols can gather large amounts of detailed data. In the past, though, trackers received little or no recognition, and they could not record data or do research on their own, because the best traditional trackers often cannot read or write.

To overcome this, they developed the CyberTracker field computer: a pen-based handheld computer with a menu of icons. By touching the screen, a tracker moves through a sequence of screens to record:

• sightings of animals and track observations, by species and by individual (such as individual rhinos);
• numbers of males, females and juveniles;
• activities such as drinking, feeding, territorial marking, running, fighting, mating and sleeping;
• the plant species an animal ate, from a plant list.

A built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) records the location of each observation automatically. Trackers who can write can add field notes; an illiterate tracker can ask a literate apprentice tracker to write them. Back at base camp, the tracker transfers the data to a desktop computer.

Two of the authors, trackers Karel Benadie and James Minye, tested the system for almost three years in Karoo National Park, South Africa, tracking black rhino to record their movements and feeding.

2. What they found

Using the computer

• Although Benadie and Minye cannot read or write, they recorded their observations and downloaded the data onto the computer by themselves.
• Initial field tests suggest a tracker can make more than 100 observations in one day. The authors estimate one field computer could produce more than 20,000 observations a year, and 100 computers in a large park like Kruger National Park more than two million.

Rhino tracking

• Individual rhinos can be identified by the distinctive random pattern of cracks in their spoor, so trackers can follow individuals and record their behaviour and feeding.
• Mapping each rhino’s movements showed areas used by only one individual and areas where their territories overlapped.
• Feeding data were detailed enough to show shifts in feeding every two months between the rainy and dry seasons (Figure 1). Among the plants most often eaten were Zygophyllum lichtensteinianum in September/October 1996 and July/August 1997, Acacia karroo in January/February 1997, Salsola smithii in March/April 1997, and Zygophyllum lichtensteinianum and Lycium cinereum in May/June 1997.
• The trackers collected much more data towards the end of the first year than at the start, so the authors consider July/August 1997 more representative than September/October 1996.
• The trackers also recorded tracks of rare or nocturnal species that are not normally monitored, and virtually anything else they found interesting.

For the trackers

Benadie and Minye report that the field computer gave them an incentive to refine their skills and made their work more meaningful. For the first time, they say, they are being recognised for the work they do.

3. What they concluded

• The CyberTracker field computer lets trackers who cannot read or write record detailed observations and share them with scientists and conservation managers every day.
• It stores this information long after the trackers might have forgotten the details, so long-term ecological trends could be monitored in much more detail than before, and computer visualisation can make large amounts of data meaningful.
• Perhaps the most important benefit is the prestige it gives trackers who were previously held in low esteem. Jobs for trackers in national parks bring economic benefits to local communities, let illiterate trackers once employed as unskilled labourers gain recognition for their specialised expertise, and help keep traditional skills that might otherwise be lost.

4. How tracking was or was not used

Tracking was the core of the work. The trackers identified individual black rhinos from the crack patterns in their tracks, followed their trails, and recorded where they went, where they drank and slept, and which plants they fed on. They also recorded the tracks of rare and nocturnal species and anything else of interest along the way.

5. Tracker or observer certification

Not reported. The trackers are named (co-authors Karel Benadie and James Minye) and described as unable to read or write, but the paper does not describe their experience, any certification or any test of their tracking skill. The rhino findings rest on their identifications.

6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

• An icon-based interface on a pen-based handheld computer, designed for trackers who cannot read or write.
• An integrated GPS that records the location of each observation when it is saved.
• Optional written field notes, with a literate apprentice writing them for an illiterate tracker.
• A simple download procedure to a base-station computer, and computer visualisation, such as maps of individual rhino movements.

7. Implications for conservation (from the paper)

• Knowing where rhinos drink and sleep may help protect them where they are most vulnerable, because that is where poachers would most likely find them during the day. Anti-poaching patrols could focus on those areas.
• A shift towards plants rhinos do not usually eat may signal overgrazing, from drought, too many antelope such as kudu feeding on the same plants, or both. Spotting this early could help managers act before a rhino loses condition, since a rhino already under stress is at greater risk of death if moved to save it from starvation.
• Managing highly endangered species like rhino may need monitoring of the whole system. For example, a porcupine may destroy a whole Acacia karroo by eating the root in one meal, and its impact on plants the rhino use is not known.