The ground-based photo (the image to the left) shows a horse paddock with three horses. Images above: Comparing Ground and Satellite Images: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists at the Bronx Zoo in New York City recently compared high resolution photographs taken from 450 kilometers (280 miles) overhead by cameras on the Quickbird satellite (the image to the right) with ground-based images of their animals taken simultaneously. "That's like standing on top of the Empire State Building and spotting a deer in Maine."
"We're counting individual gazelles in the zoo's African Plains exhibit from a satellite 280 miles up," said Dr. According to members of the team, the detail of the images taken from so far away has been particularly impressive. High-tech maps produced by Quickbird, which orbited the Bronx Zoo in November 2004, have revealed incredibly clear images of everything from giraffes to Thomson's gazelles. To test their proposed use of satellite images, WCS scientists recently counted their own animal populations. The satellite, called Quickbird, is owned by DigitalGlobe, a private company. They will then compare images from different dates to see changes, either population growth or decline, over time.
Using cameras fixed to an orbiting satellite 450 kilometers (280 miles) overhead, WCS scientists say that they will be able to take high resolution photographs of specific areas to determine the wildlife composition within that area. Credit: The Met Office, UK/SAFARI 2000/ORNL Image to right: Tracking Lions in the Wild: These lions were photographed during NASA’s SAFARI 2000 field campaign. The WCS's recent use of satellite technology, sponsored by NASA, may revolutionize the way endangered wildlife in remote areas of the world are counted and monitored. For decades, traditional capture and tag methods have been a primary tool, but they are not the most efficient when dealing with large animals and animals in remote locations.
Scientists from the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in New York City have been monitoring endangered wildlife populations for more than 100 years. Threatened by habitat loss, poaching, pollution and other factors, wildlife species across the globe are declining in number at an alarming rate.
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