Researchers recently analyzed thousands of photos that have been taken by tourists when they go on safari in Botswana, and it turns out that tourists have been taking photos that could offer great help with tracking leopards and lions and other animals, just as good as scientists, while on their various safari excursions.

Tourists take many photos while on vacation in places like Botswana and researchers have recently been interested in how they might be able to use those photos for research.

After a month-long trial that involved two dozen groups of tourists, researchers discovered that it would be more efficient and cheaper to track animals this way, compared to traditional methods of tracking.

Current methods for tracking are expensive and provide difficulty with being easily knocked down (cameras etc) by various animals that might be curious about what's going on. Weather can also pose a problem with current tracking efforts and the government stands in the way too, by demanding permits that researchers first obtain for call-in stations.

A single research project could involve going through a bureaucratic maze to try and get multiple permits, taking months to obtain before researchers can get started.

Tourists involved in the study had been outfitted with GPS which would record their location at 1 min intervals, and there were 50 people in 26 tour groups who collected and then provided photos over a 3 month period.

Overall, researchers collected more than 25,000 pictures and those photos were tagged with locations and times.

The 3 month cost for that research was also very cheap, $300 overall when traditional methods can easily cost thousands. This investigation supports the notion that volunteer collected data by tourists can be very valuable and useful to researchers. It can help to generate high-quality scientific data.

Aside from tourists offering a helping hand, drones have also been a great innovation that have helped to reduce the costs of surveying wildlife. They have also been seen to be more accurate at counting too, which has experts suggesting that overall it could be a conservation game-changer.

There is a downside for the improvement in tracking though, as scientists have previously suggested that having a better idea and more detailed information of exactly where the animals are can easily put them at risk; that information can be hacked and used to exploit them they've warned. But for researchers who are looking to improve their efforts in efficiency and cost etc, to try and help those animals, it's good to know that new technology is helping improve their efforts. As well, that tourists might be able to voluntarily add some great value to their research.

Pics:
pixabay

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