Conservation

Knowledge benefits conservation

Close-up of a buzzard with detailed plumage and sharp eyes against a bright sky. — The use of pesticides in its wintering areas in South America has severely decimated brown hawks.

© Wikipedia/ Calibas

The use of pesticides in its wintering areas in South America has severely decimated brown hawks.

© Wikipedia/ Calibas

The planet’s ecosystems still provide trillions of dollars in services every year—an overwhelming reminder of nature’s productivity and our dependence on it. Yet we enjoy this bounty in the shadow of a crisis. Wild animal populations are plummeting. Some species are already extinct, while others are teetering on the brink. In Europe, there are 600 million fewer birds today than in 1980—a loss of nearly 20 percent. In North America, bird numbers have fallen by 30 percent since 1970. Insect diversity is declining as well. You’ve probably witnessed this “disappearing” of life firsthand. How many songbirds do you now hear in the woods? When did you last clean your car windscreen of insects?

There’s no mystery what lies at the heart of the biodiversity crisis. In the last few centuries, our human population has ballooned. Today, with nearly 8 billion of us on the planet, the human species leaves its mark everywhere: destroying habitats, polluting landscapes, overhunting wildlife. With all these threats, is it even possible to halt the mass extinction of species? The answer is not just “yes”—it’s an urgent “yes.” The tools to safeguard our planet’s biodiversity are within reach, but they demand new research, technological innovation, and a reimagined global conservation mindset.

Thankfully we have more than vision—projects like ICARUS provide the means to realize it too. One of the most exciting advances in conservation today is the use of wearable technology to monitor animal health and behavior in real time. These devices are revolutionizing the way we understand and protect wildlife. They allow us to track migration patterns, monitor health, and even predict when an animal is in danger. This data is not only valuable for researchers—it is transformative for conservationists on the ground, enabling rapid responses to threats and a more proactive approach to protecting endangered species.

Fishers are increasingly living in urban areas in the USA. Using GPS transmitters and cameras, scientists are documenting the movement patterns of the once timid animals.

© Roland Kays, NC State University

Fishers are increasingly living in urban areas in the USA. Using GPS transmitters and cameras, scientists are documenting the movement patterns of the once timid animals.

© Roland Kays, NC State University

Take, for example, the case of the white stork. Using GPS trackers, scientists discovered that electrocution from overhead power lines was a major cause of stork mortality. A simple intervention—replacing insulators—has sharply reduced the number of fatalities. Thanks to this and other improvements, stork populations are rebounding across Europe. In a similar way, we have tracked the movements of wild dogs in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. Now we can alert park rangers immediately whenever an animal is caught in a wire snare set by poachers. Over the past two years, our Max Planck partner Louis van Schalkwyk has freed 45 wild dogs from snares—about ten percent of the entire Kruger population.

AI is boosting our predictive power further. Our institute is trialing a smart cat collar that we hope can halt the staggering decline of songbirds. According to the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), domestic cats kill up to 200 million songbirds in Germany every year. Powered by AI, our cat collar recognizes hunting movements and plays a blackbird alarm call that scares birds away.

Even though wearables for wildlife were only conceived as research tools some two decades ago, they may become vital to conservation in many areas. That’s because these wearables are part of a tech revolution that has the power to connect humanity back to wild animals and the natural world.