Wildlife ACT Innovations

13/10/2026

Behind the priority species wildlife tracking collars, fenceline alerts, vehicle and personnel-ranger tracking systems is a gateway network quietly doing the work. This week, the WildInno and Wildlife ACT's Tech & Data team carried out a site visit to Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park to assess gateway health and antenna alignment across the park.

📍 Signal reliability — antenna checks are vital to ensure every LoRa device can communicate optimally
📍 Uninterrupted tracking — a gateway offline is a blind spot that needs to be resolved as soon as possible
📍 Infrastructure care — solar panels, mounts, and cabling are inspected for wear and tear; establishing what requires updates and replacements before it becomes a weakness is key

Keep the towers healthy, and everything relying on them stays on track.

07/10/2026

When twenty Black Rhinos stepped into their new home in Botswana, an impressive ground team of people and advanced tools had been established to follow their first steps. Involved in the layout and design of the LoRaWAN system and supplying the tracking technology, WWF SA Black Rhino Range Expansion Project, Wildlife ACT and the reserve Rangers had the equipment and capability to monitor and maintain watch on these Rhinos, from the moment of release and through the months ahead.

Every landscape asks something different of the people working in it, and tests the true strength of technological engineering, and this one is no exception. It is the rangers and partners on the ground who turn that technology into care, watching as the Rhinos habituate, explore, and begin to establish themselves within the new environment. We are grateful to be one small part of that immense teamwork and dedication.

ezemvelokznwildlife WWF South Africa Wereld Natuur Fonds - WWF

📸 Anel Swart / Wildlife ACT - Focused Conservation

05/10/2026

Thinking of LoRaWAN as an ecosystem: interconnected systems and people working together to make it happen;

What's promising is the direction things are heading: lighter GPS collars, power-efficient sensors for fencelines to vehicles, smarter networks, and tools that are assisting the people and species they're built to support.

No single device carries that forward on its own — a collar means little without a gateway to receive it, a gateway means little without a platform to make sense of what it collects, and a platform means little without the people in the field acting on it.

As these systems learn to communicate more seamlessly with one another, the outlook for conservation and reserve-management improves— not because of any one breakthrough, but because more fields are working in step toward the same mission.

01/10/2026

What spring changes for a wildlife tracking network system,

As Southern Africa moves into spring, the landscape itself starts coming to life again, and with these changes, animal movements diversify, and tracking technology can begin to behave differently as well.

New vegetation growth and thicket can affect signal strength across a reserve, while earlier hours waking means an adjustment in GPS schedules across the board to meet animals' adapted mannerisms to earlier and longer daylight hours. WildInno works closely with management and ecologists to make these changes mean the most.

Spring also carries its own quiet privilege: it's known as birthing season across much of the region, and reserves welcome new members into populations already being watched over. Being able to monitor and track a new mother from the moment her young is welcomed onto a reserve is something special in and of itself.

Technology doesn't pause for spring. We adapt it to meet the changing behaviour and to ensure performance is never hindered,

Photograph one credited to Brandie Wettstein

28/09/2026

Tracking a Vulture or Raptor is a different design problem entirely from tracking a mammal on the ground. Weight, balance, and drag matter in ways a collar never has to account for — every gram affects flight, not just comfort.

That difference is shaping what's currently on the drawing board. Lighter, flight-ready tracking devices are in development, built specifically around what birdlife needs rather than adapted from what already works for mammals. Stay tuned,

Photography credited to Chantelle Melzer, Wild Tomorrow

22/09/2026

19/09/2026

Tracking a species that doesn't stay within the lines...

Brown Hyenas are wide-ranging by nature, capable of covering large home ranges that often extend well beyond a single reserve's boundary. That reality shapes how they're tracked.

For far-ranging species like this, satellite tracking offers a key capability: continuous coverage regardless of where the animal actually goes. The satellite GPS collar can report a location whether the animal is deep inside a reserve or has moved into neighbouring land.

That matters for a species whose movements aren't always predictable. Satellite collars let conservationists follow Brown Hyena across landscapes that don't respect fence lines, building a clearer picture of territory, dispersal, and how individuals move.

It's a reminder that not every tracking solution fits every species. Wide-ranging carnivores are exactly the kind of case satellite tracking was built for.

16/09/2026

Tracking technology built together, learning from one another,

As quickly as wildlife tracking technology is advancing, it has not changed what conservation depends on — people on the ground, reading a landscape, knowing a species and decision-making.

Where we are seeing technology make a difference is reaction time. A signal from a collar or a fenceline alarm combined with fieldwork puts information in front of someone sooner, so a response can begin as soon as possible.

Diverse skill sets, working together toward the same mission. Fieldwork brings the judgment that only comes from years on the ground, while design, engineering, and data analysis bring the tools that offer support. Advancing the methods by which priority species are monitored and protected.

Photograph one credited to Wildlife ACT - Focused Conservation

16/09/2026