Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) are now counting the animals in their Bronx zoo with the help of a satellite orbiting 280 miles above the Earth -- and New York. In this news release, they say they're so pleased with the results that they plan to count wildlife populations in remote locations in other parts of the world. In the months to come, they'll count "elephants and giraffes in Tanzania, flamingos in South America, and elk, bison and antelope in Wyoming." They add that you need a "trained eye" to spot the animals, and believe me, it's true. They released images which look like a bunch of messy pixels to my "untrained eyes." But read more.
"This Quickbird satellite image taken in November 2004, shows a giraffe in its exhibit at the Bronx Zoo. The high-resolution cameras can take photos with incredible detail and clarity to the trained eye." (Credit for image and legend: Wildlife Conservation Society)
The keyword in the legend above is "trained eye." Personally, I don't really spot a giraffe in this satellite image. And you, can you find the giraffe in this larger image?
Here is the introduction of the WCS news release.
Scientists with the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have recently been counting their zoo animals from a lofty perch: namely, outer space. Using high-tech cameras fixed to an orbiting satellite 280 miles overhead, a WCS scientific team tallied some of the zoo's own animal collection to see if satellites can help count wildlife populations in remote locations throughout the world.
The WCS team is currently analyzing high-tech maps produced by the satellite, which orbited the zoo last Wednesday, Nov. 10th. So far, everything from giraffes to Thomson's gazelles have been spotted with startling clarity. If the technology proves accurate, WCS is hopeful that it can be used to monitor endangered wildlife populations that live in hard-to-reach locations.
Books are the best things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end, which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book, than to be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
You'll find other details in this NASA news release, a slightly rephrased version of the WCS one, but which contains pictures, such as the one above.
Using cameras fixed to an orbiting satellite 450 kilometers (280 miles) overhead, WCS scientists say that they will be able to take high resolution photographs of specific areas to determine the wildlife composition within that area. They will then compare images from different dates to see changes, either population growth or decline, over time. The satellite, called Quickbird, is owned by DigitalGlobe, a private company.
Launched in 2001, QuickBird is still one of the only commercial remote sensing satellites capable of gathering sub-meter resolution. Its subsystem captures 0.61-meter-resolution panchromatic imagery, and 2.4-meter multi-spectral imagery. It will produce 11 x 11-km snapshots to 11 x 225-km strip maps. [These details come from this page at Kodak website.]
For more information about this satellite, you can check the QuickBird Specifications and some QuickBird Satellite Images.
Sources: Wildlife Conservation Society news release, via EurekAlert!, November 17, 2004; NASA news release, January 17, 2005; and various websites
Related stories can be found in the following categories.
Environment
NASA
Nature
Space
Vision and Visualization.