LEO microsatellite operator Satelliot has finalized an agreement with South African NGO Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) to deploy 5G IoT sensors on vultures as part of broader efforts to combat poaching in Africa. It revealed that.
Under the agreement, Sateliot will provide 5G IoT LEOsat coverage for EWT’s “Eye In The Sky” project. The project will use vultures equipped with GPS sensors as a poison detection system in southern and eastern Africa.
EWT says the illegal trade has poisoned thousands of vultures across the continent, decimating their populations and rapidly driving them to extinction in the wild. Carrion-eating mammals such as lions, hyenas, and leopards are also severely affected by poisoning.
The “Eye In The Sky” system uses EarthRanger software to monitor the behavioral characteristics of GPS-tracked vultures, detecting the presence of poison sources and feeding associated with potentially poisoned carcasses. Detect events remotely. The GPS-equipped bird sends alerts to various front-end platforms, enabling rapid response teams across Africa to quickly respond to poisoning incidents and decontaminate the scene.
The system currently covers approximately 15 million square kilometers with more than 380 vultures of five species. According to EWT, the system has successfully identified 15 poisoning incidents in the past year alone, helping response teams rescue more than 100 highly dangerous vultures, quickly eliminate the source of poison, and It is said that they were able to decontaminate the area.
The addition of 5G IoT sensors will enable EWT to leverage NB-IoT on terrestrial cellular networks to track vultures. Meanwhile, Sateliot’s satellite network provides continuous coverage outside of terrestrial coverage through standard roaming agreements with carriers.
This means EWT and other NGOs can connect to IoT sensors via satellite using standard cellular-compatible equipment and SIMs, making it much cheaper overall than using specialized satellite equipment, EWT said. said Allison Janicke, director of business development at.
“This financial relief will allow us to allocate these funds to other important conservation efforts,” she said. “In addition to financial savings, partnering with Satelliot also saves time and effort on fundraising, which can be invested in conservation efforts on the ground.”
Sateliot’s LEO microsatellites support 3GPP’s 5G Release 17, which enables NB-IoT to operate in terrestrial and non-terrestrial 5G networks. Satelliot currently has two microsatellites in orbit and recently secured discovery to launch four more this year. The Barcelona-based company plans to launch another 64 microsatellites over the next 18 months.
