Press Release - Satellite Collaring

Next week history will be made in Niger, West Africa when eight of the highly endangered West African Giraffe that roam there will be fitted with the very latest specifically-designed GPS satellite collars.  The collars will enable resident research scientist  Jean-Patrick Suraud  (ASGN) and his team to monitor and study more closely the  range over which these amazing animals roam.  Specific data can be downloaded every hour from the collars, if necessary,  in order to track all movements and,  over time this will give the research team a better understanding of habitat need,  enabling them to put measures in place to avoid human conflict.

Already part of a highly successful conservation effort, the West African Giraffe was teetering on the edge of extinction in the late 1990s with numbers having dwindled to a mere 50 animals. Today with 200 giraffe in existence it is crucial that every effort is made to understand exactly what the impact of a slowly increasing population will mean in the context of land management and human co-existence.

Click here to download the full press release.