Connected Wildlife: Cisco Enters the Niche Market of Rhino Protection

Animal poaching has had a significant impact on endangered animals in the African region, especially elephants, lions, and rhinos. It is reported that over 1,000 rhinos are poached in South Africa every year, and the species is expected to be extinct by 2025. Trophy hunting is considered a sport in some cultures, which has led to the increased slaughter of elephants, too. Fortunately, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have been proven to help conservation efforts.

In 2015, South African technology company Dimension Data and its long-time partner Cisco launched their Connected Conservation project, which aims to minimize animal slaughters and protect both species of animals that have been classified as endangered and species that may be soon.

The partnership between Cisco and Dimension Data has proved successful: poaching has been reduced by 96% in a private forest near Kruger National Park in South Africa. Though many governments have many different initiatives in place in an attempt to minimize the rate of poaching, it was not until the introduction of IoT that serious movements started being made within this market.

The solution Cisco offers to this niche market is unlike other methods of animal tracking because it does not harm the animals at all. Where previous attempts to track or prevent the poaching of rhinos required them to be dehorned or have sensors placed in their horns that required anesthetic shots, Cisco’s solution does not. Cisco’s solution, including its digital infrastructure, cloud, digital workplace, and cybersecurity components, provides an alternative approach to wildlife protection with the ability to operate in remote areas with the toughest of conditions.

Due to the success of Connected Conservation, Dimension Data and Cisco are expanding their project outside of just South Africa. They plan to extend this vertical into other regions such as Zambia, Kenya, and Mozambique. Not only do they plan to expand the specific niche of rhino monitoring to more regions, they also plan to use their technology to reduce the extinction of other endangered animals.

The most significant difference for this specific solution compared to traditional methods of ensuring the safety of the endangered animals is that Cisco is not actually tracking and placing sensors on any animal, but rather tracking human entry into the natural reserves. This is done via several different technology options, including drones with recording devices, heat sensors, and a security network, all of which offer a much more proactive approach to preventing poaching. Cisco has announced that not only has this solution decreased response time from 30 to 7 minutes, but in the year of 2017 no rhinos were lost.

Helping to preserve precious species is a key example of how IoT can be used for more than just automating specific verticals. The success of the Connected Conservation project has resulted in wider opportunities and provides the opportunity for growth within the niche conservation market, such as the ability to prevent poaching of aquatic life like whales, sharks, and stingrays in addition to other significant endangered species such as the Bengal tiger.

In such regions, there are not so many connectivity options due to the remoteness of the areas in which these wild animals reside. One thought these program suppliers could consider in the long run is connecting them via satellite to improve connectivity and the reliability of the connections. This means that not only will the connectivity be more reliable, but the solution will be able to become more reliable as well. Satellite vendors such as Iridium, SpaceX, and Areal and Maritime (A&M) could consider adding the niche market of animal conservation to the wide variety of market segments they cover.