These 'Astroecologists' Are Using Star-Spotting Tech to Count Endangered Animals

Astrophysicists sometimes turn to thermal infrared technology to help them find and study stars. The technology’s been around for decades, and it’s constantly evolving to reveal more about the cosmos. Now, some of these scientists are bringing their expertise to the world of conservation. If thermal cameras are capable of spotting distant stars, well, they must be capable of finding animals here on Earth, right? In what the researchers are calling the first official collaboration between astrophysicists and ecologists, a team from Liverpool John Moores University went in search of Bornean orangutans, a critically endangered species that hides in the forests of Borneo, a southeast Asian island. A presentation Tuesday at the Unifying Tropical Ecology Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, will highlight the way drones equipped with the astrophysicists’ infrared imaging technology can more quickly and effectively count the number of individuals orangutans in the forest canopy more effectively than people can. This experiment’s success has opened the door for experts to use this star-gazing technology to examine other rare and endangered species...MORE