Citizens and scientists earn their stripes counting Kenya's Grevy's zebras
- 8 years ago
How do you tell one zebra from another? By looking at their stripes, of course – with a special software that can identify their natural “barcode”.
This has allowed conservationists in Kenya to carry out the first ever major census of the Grevy’s zebra, whose population has plummeted from an estimated 15,000 in the early 1980s to an estimated 2,500.
The Great Zebra Rally was the first time that “citizen science” had been used to count the zebra species.
Sheila Funnell, Research Manager at The Grevy’s Zebra Trust, says: “Because we do have very low populations of Grevy’s zebra numbers, every individual that is killed whether for their meat or due to poaching for example for their skins, which doesn’t happen so often these days.
“All of those incidences do have a significant impact on Grevy’s zebras populations.”
Fifty vehicles loaded with teams of scientists, conservationists and volunteers have been photographing every Grevy’s zebra they see using GPS enabled cameras.
To
This has allowed conservationists in Kenya to carry out the first ever major census of the Grevy’s zebra, whose population has plummeted from an estimated 15,000 in the early 1980s to an estimated 2,500.
The Great Zebra Rally was the first time that “citizen science” had been used to count the zebra species.
Sheila Funnell, Research Manager at The Grevy’s Zebra Trust, says: “Because we do have very low populations of Grevy’s zebra numbers, every individual that is killed whether for their meat or due to poaching for example for their skins, which doesn’t happen so often these days.
“All of those incidences do have a significant impact on Grevy’s zebras populations.”
Fifty vehicles loaded with teams of scientists, conservationists and volunteers have been photographing every Grevy’s zebra they see using GPS enabled cameras.
To