This week I became interested in the use of GPS trackers in conservation programs around the world. These take the form of telemetry collars which provide real-time updates on the locations of vulnerable, endangered, or dangerous animals. Bellow are a few articles from around the world which are either directly about the implementation of networked tracking systems in the management of at-risk species, or indirectly mention the use of these technologies alongside the discussion of a related environmental issue.

Camera collar trial to keep K’gari wongari safe
This media release from the Department of Environment and Science in Queensland announced plans to deploy “high-tech camera collars” to track the movements behaviour of wongari (dingoes) on Fraser Island. Wongari are a high-risk species and the aim of these collars is to better understand their “animal/human interactions”—especially because the wongari have developed a “lack of fear of people [and have] become habituated through being fed.” So not only is this an attempt to surveil dingoes, but also to surveil the humans who feed them.

Inside the controversial plan to reintroduce cheetahs to India
This article explores the reintroduction of cheetahs in India. Once part of the Indian ecosystems, cheetahs disappeared  70 years ago after hunting and overdevelopment reshaped India. The article briefly discusses the use of tracking collars for the animals, not so much to understand or learn about the animals, but to keep them in place. The animals will be monitored 24/7, “So if they walk away,” says S.P. Yadav, the program’s director, “we’ll bring them back.”

GPS collars as a tool to uncover environmental crimes in Brazil: The jaguar as a sentinel
Perhaps the most interesting article of the three, this recent essay looks at how environmental crimes in Brazil (in this case “death of several wild animals due to the use of smuggled pesticides” [1]) was uncovered via the GPS monitoring of a jaguar. This raises several questions about the larger politics of animal surveillance and how they may be employed to indirectly track humans. This is a topic I will want to explore further in future weeks.