Internet of Things: Wildlife Conservation and its Challenges

Abstract

Right now there are more connected “Things” than there are people on this planet. Early last year, it is predicted that Internet of things (IOT) would have at least 8.4 billion connected “Things” in use rising to more than 21 billion by 2021. Today major percentage of wildlife is vulnerable to extinction. This is caused due to the destruction of forest areas for farming, logging and construction of new cities and towns. Many wild animals have been killed due to road accidents and speeding vehicles passes through the wildlife protected area. Animals crossing boundaries have led to be killed. The impacts of roads include habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and habitat degradation that affect wildlife and its habitats both directly and indirectly especially on larger mammals [6]. Recent studies into the extent of illegal logging estimate that illegal logging accounts for 50-90 per cent of the volume of all forestry in key producer tropical countries and 15-30 per cent globally [1]. Protection of wildlife has become an important now a days, because of human activities such as hunting of wild animals and cutting of trees which causes major threat to the wildlife. Recent advancements in IoT technology and sensor technology have the potential to wildlife conservation. Physical barriers are not suitable for animals because they may harm the animal physically. This can be prevented by using tracking of animal movement and keep them under a logical barrier. This paper focuses on implementation of animal monitoring and challenges of wildlife conservation. This paper also shows natural challenges and technical challenges while implementing animal tracking and health monitoring system.