Digital innovation to keep Koalas safe
Australian cities are remarkable in their perfect diversity of wildlife that surprisingly lives among the local population, from flocks of raucous cockatoos to the dusk fly-out of huge numbers of flying-foxes. But such exposure of nature can be tragically misleading. For instance, the number of Koalas is in decline in parts of Australia as the land they used to live in is under continuous development.
Koala’s extinction & early intervention
Even before the bushfires decimated Koala populations, there were growing fears that the animals were in trouble. Scientists and conservation organizations say the loss of habitat because of land clearing is pushing Koalas more and more to migrate into urban areas, and occasionally into people’s Christmas trees, where they could get killed by cars and attacked by dogs. Populations of Koalas under stress are also more exposed to deadly diseases, experts say. The Australian Koala Foundation estimates that there are less than 100,000 Koalas left in the wild, possibly as few as 43,000. Bold new ideas were crucial for Mobiquity’s client mOOvement to look into ways to keep innovating fast to protect endangered species.
Mobiquity worked with mOOvement to accelerate digital innovation by blending strategy, creativity, analytics and engineering and make cattle farmers be more productive, profitable and in control. While the GPS ear tags were originally designed for tracking cattle over long distances, more recently, mOOvement went further to also use them for monitoring and tracking wildlife behaviour.
Unique aspects of the smart solution
mOOvement developed an innovative GPS ear tag which allows researchers from the University of Queensland to track Koalas remotely and monitor their movement over long distances. The innovative technology provides all sorts of valuable insights such as location alerts, behavioral patterns and predicted dangers, which could be the key to saving Koalas the next time bushfires ravage the country. mOOvement is the only GPS ear tag in the market that is compact, light and easy to apply and remove. It’s powered by integrated solar panels and it is reusable. By using the mOOvement technology, researchers hope they establish better practices for recolonization of landscapes by Koalas, have a better understanding of how various Koalas use their landscape and an evidence based guide to improving the lot of Koalas in the agricultural landscape.
Laying the foundation for the future
It’s clear that digitalization opens up a field of possibilities to enhance animal health and wellbeing, offering new opportunities from wildlife conservation, to consumer pet tracking, to commercial livestock health monitoring. These technologies give us the necessary data and insights into what the ‘new normal’ may look like. Only by leveraging digital tools and methodologies can we create a human-centric user experience that engages more people in nature conservation, at a time when it needs it most.
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