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ECO Mapping is a South African based company that has been involved in many projects relating to wildlife and conservation research in RSA and abroad. By working side by side with many conservation bodies, we identified some general difficulties in certain research and wildlife work.
The first situation identified was especially work done in mountainous areas with birds, or in general where heights are concerned. These research circumstances pose safety risks and take much of one’s research time.
The second situation was in game capture operation. In general, a light piston engine helicopter like the Robinson R22 or R44 is used for mass captures or even some bigger models like Bell Jetranger is used for mass captures. But when only single animals needed to be darted, and one cannot reach the animals by vehicle, we need an alternative other than the helicopter to reach the animal. Or when there is an animal darted from a vehicle, one can’t always see where it goes or in what position it fell after being tranquilized, or in what state it is.
After identifying the difficulties in research situations and game capture operations, ECO Mapping is leading a project where we want to design a radio controlled helicopter or fixed wing aircraft with a life feed camera on board, in order to record the sights from above! The aim of this is for the aircraft to aid perfectly in the counting of bird colonies on mountains, and when a modified dart gun is also installed alongside this camera, a game capture operation can be so much easier. The aim is not to totally exclude real helicopters used in game capture, merely to cut costs where animals need to be counted (recorded with life camera) and where difficult situations occur where one quickly need an eye in the air or to reverse the tranquilizer drug if humans can’t reach the animal.
During some experiments we already found that the radio controlled helicopters available on the market is much to small and only mend as toys, thus we need to make use of engineers to design a radio controlled helicopter that can carry batteries a camera and modified dart gun with ease. The whole control system needs to be re-structured. We are also looking at technology of the SEEKER I and II build by DENEL.
This research is pioneer work for Nature Conservation. Many say South Africa is the leader in conservation, so please help us to fulfill a dream of finishing this unique research in order to make other research project so much easier. This radio-controlled aircraft will not be precluded for wildlife research, it can also be applied in many other fields where the life camera feed is needed or the dart gun actions is needed. For example rescue operations in an area where the rescue personal can’t see, one can determine with this kind of helicopter what the accident scene looks like and what equipment is needed!
Our research project is estimated at round about R 2 million up to R5 million RSA rands (£350 000 or $700 000) This is why we urgently need some more funding and support for this matter! Contact ECO Mapping for more information and donations can be send to our South African bank account.
Contact ECO Mapping for more information.
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