The African elephant Loxodonta spp conservation programmes of North Carolina Zoo: two decades of using emerging technologies to advance in situ conservation efforts

Abstract

The North Carolina Zoo (Asheboro, NC, USA) has been actively involved with field‐based conservation initiatives targeting wild elephants in Africa for over 20 years. To overcome resource and logistical constraints faced by our African collaborators working in rural areas, the Zoo has helped to develop several emerging techniques and technologies. The Zoo's oldest field programme, which is still ongoing, uses novel anaesthesia techniques to fit satellite‐tracking collars on elephants in the field to gain a better understanding of their movement patterns in West and Central Africa. In addition, rangers use the real‐time tracking data generated from these collars as an early‐warning system to redirect roaming elephants back to protected areas before they come into conflict with human activities. The Zoo is also strengthening capacity for anti‐poaching activities by digitizing and standardizing patrol data collection. To this end, the Zoo has supported the development and implementation of Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) conservation software, a freely available and fully customizable package that allows patrol data to be collected on handheld devices such as smartphones, from where it can be imported into computers for automated analysis and report generation. To date, the Zoo has helped implement SMART at 14 protected areas in five African countries, several of which contain substantial elephant populations. To ensure the effectiveness and sustainable use of these technologies, ongoing training and technical support are provided, and are considered vital components of all our field programmes.