Poaching is a debilitating epidemic that has Southern African reeling from its atrocities.
Poaching is a debilitating epidemic that has Southern African reeling from its atrocities. These exquisite African animals and wildlife are the continent’s shining stars, and to watch many of them, particularly rhinos and elephants, decline in numbers at a rapid rate, is a tragedy.
AxxonSoft, a global security and surveillance software developer, wanted to help combat and prevent poaching, and have specially designed deep learning-based artificial intelligence technology to provide proactive surveillance in identifying poaching threats across Southern Africa.
Global Marketing Director for AxxonSoft, Colleen Glaeser holds this initiative very close to her heart and has worked closely with the global team to develop state-of-the-art surveillance technology that specifically targets poaching. Glaeser is from South Africa and as poaching over the past decade has become more and more distressing, she knew she had to do something to help prevent the catastrophe from growing.
“Coming from South Africa, growing up surrounded by these majestic animals and the exquisite plains of the African continent, seeing the destruction that poaching has imposed on my country and the continent is devastating. The protection of wildlife is very close to my heart. I have been in the security and surveillance industry for the past 25 years, and I knew that I had to use my knowledge and expertise to create proactive technology that can aid and impact the antipoaching initiative.” Colleen said.
Most of the parks where poaching crimes occur are fenced. Attempts were made to protect these areas with perimeter security systems combined with video surveillance, but they were ineffective. Since animals often bump the fence, such systems generated quite a few false alarms. Thus, security staff couldn’t possibly monitor all the events and easily missed real threats, when poachers invaded the park.
“The global team and I have worked tirelessly to create a system that addresses poaching head on. We have pioneered a new video surveillance implementation of Deep Learning technology, and now it can detect the difference between humans and animals. As soon as there is a breach, the surveillance centre is immediately notified. Cameras are used to identify where the breach has occurred, and they can pick up exactly where the threat has taken place. The guard centre immediately gets all the necessary information, and the antipoaching unit is dispatched. This has proved very successful in preventing killings as the team is able to get to the scene of the crime quickly.” Colleen said.
Colleen is also working with British actor and author, Peter Meyer on his various antipoaching initiatives to raise awareness across the UK and Europe. Peter grew up in the South African bush and is heartbroken by the poaching crisis in his beloved country. AxxonSoft is also working with various game reserves and parks across the region to combat poaching in high risk areas. AxxonSoft, Glaeser, and Meyer make a powerful team and hope to change the anti-poaching landscape dramatically in the next few years.