A lot of solutions have been deployed to help endangered species. But looking closely to these devices (collars, tags) it is a known fact that they all are very intrusive, very expensive, consume a lot of energy and do not last long in terms of autonomy. As a result, these wild animals need to be bothered very often to get the equipment renewed. It is not adapted to wildlife which needs as little human or technical intervention as possible.

The Sigfox Foundation, using the Sigfox 0G network, has imagined a new tracking/monitoring solution, to help rangers to better monitor a population of wild rhinos in Africa.

The Foundation has rolled out the Sigfox frugal network (low energy, low cost, long-range radio signals): three base stations fully working in autonomy, covering more than 3000 km² conservancy area.
Partnering with a group of rhinos’ conservationists, we prototyped a small tracker giving a GPS signal everyday, directly installed in the horn of around 20 black and white rhinos. It allows collection of extremely valuable data on the location and movements of the animals in a very simple way.

This prototype is much less intrusive, barely more than an inch but having a battery autonomy of several years and estimated at around 50 dollars per unit. The next step is to produce more sensors at the lowest price to equip a maximum of rhinos and contribute to their survival. With this objective in mind, Sigfox Foundation is currently working with a manufacturer to develop an industrial version of the prototype.

The design, hardware and software of this very small device are available in order to accelerate the development of similar devices for other species and amplify the impact globally.
Our objective is also to foster innovation and the use of emergent, simple and affordable technologies to tackle global causes.
In addition to the rhinoceros device, our Foundation is working on a PoC to use sensors to connect parks and reserves, in order to provide rangers with information about asset movements.

https://sigfoxfoundation.org/now-rhinos-speak/

• Africa

• Remote and rural communities
• Conservationists of endangered species

This project is replicable because we made a proof of concept and we know the Sigfox 0G infrastructure is reliable even in an hostile environment like a remote wild area with hot temperatures. The prototype has been successfully emitting messages and the data was displayed in a demo platform.

Once the industrialized version of the prototype is final, the project can be replicable by NGO and conservancies who will be able to equip as many rhinoceroces as they need to.

Moreover, any conservationist will be able to leverage the design and adapt it to another specie. It will still require some research and development to tailor the design to a particular species, but a great deal of time is saved by being able to reuse what is already available with our current design.

There are 27 000 rhinoceroses left in the world. If we manage to connect 2700, we will have protected 10% of the remaining population.

This project is sustainable because we have already gained 3 years’ experience with the pilot we started with our partners in Africa. We know the solution is viable and working on the long run, with a need of making a more robust device, with an antenna embedded, which we are working on with our partner Tektos.

Also, the Sigfox equipment enabling the routing of the messages to the end user is robust while consuming very little energy. The device used only wakes up when it needs to emit a message, and the antenna captures the messages as and when it is emitted. The network is not using any energy outside of these exchanges.

The project “Now Rhinos Speak” specifically illustrates the shared responsibility we take as we believe the species threatened by extinction are part of a common heritage that we need to protect altogether. Enabling conservationists to monitor rhinos in real time every day is a game changer for the conservation community and gives them the information they need to undertake the actions to protect the animals and support their conservation. Sigfox Foundation is supported by the Sigfox wider ecosystem of devices and solution makers. We have made a call for contribution to the Internet of things ecosystem to collect devices that can help providing valuable insight when it comes to localizing assets (the people looking after the endangered animals, the vehicles to go on the site, the radios…) to ensure the quickest response to a threat and contributing to poaching dissuasion. The other World Forum Information Society value we are in line with is the Respect for nature. The rhinos and endangered species more generally are part of a global ecosystem and habitat that need to be protected to be sustainable for the specie reproduction on the long term. We are striving to achieve our mission using Information Communication Technologies as we are convinced that connecting the physical world to the internet is the leading way to provide valuable and vital data. Finally, through our action, we are contributing fighting against animal body parts trafficking thereby fighting against parallel and unlawful economy.