Case Study: Africa Wildlife Tracking achieves stronger anti-poaching protection and real-time wildlife monitoring with ORBCOMM’s tracking technology

Africa Wildlife Tracking Addresses Poaching with ORBCOMM’s Tracking Technology

Africa Wildlife Tracking (AWT), a South Africa–headquartered conservation outfit with 25+ years’ experience tracking wildlife in 40 countries, faced persistent threats from poaching, habitat loss and the COVID-19–driven reduction in tourism revenue. To improve monitoring and intervention capabilities, AWT partnered with ORBCOMM, deploying ORBCOMM’s satellite-enabled tracking technology (including OGi modems, IDP terminals, RFID tags and bespoke elephant collars) to gather reliable location and sensor data in remote, forested environments.

AWT integrated ORBCOMM OGi modems and IDP terminals into collars and transmitters so elephants act as mobile communication hubs for smaller animals, delivering near‑real‑time GPS, alarms, collar temperature, tamper and geofence data via satellite. Using about 150 OGi modems and 500+ IDP terminals and with close to 6,000 animals collared, ORBCOMM’s connectivity improved coverage in dense forests, extended battery life and enabled collars to last years (reducing redeployment costs), gave rangers timely anti‑poaching alerts and helped map poaching hotspots and habitat corridors.

Africa Wildlife Tracking

Martin Haupt

Africa Wildlife Tracking