Technology is playing a vital role in preservation and ecology research.Drones(无人机) hold huge 1 in the fight to save the world's remaining wildlife from extinction. So researchers can now track wild animals through dense forests and monitor whales in vast oceans. It's estimated that up to five living species become extinct every day, making it urgent that universities develop new technologies to capture the data that can persuade 2 to act.
The British International Education Association hosted a conference in January to 3 the importance of technological solutions in protectingvulnerable(易受伤害的) species and ecosystems. Speakers underlined how technology can help 4: drones can circle high above the ocean to spot whales, while certain cameras can identify members of an individual species.
According to Claudio Sillero, biology professor at Oxford University, technology is changing how preservation research is done — but it's in a(n) 5 way. As technology gets better and cheaper, researchers become better at doing what they were already doing. 6, remote sensing used to be a very technical tool but is now widespread, and everyone uses global positioning system (GPS) for surveying.
But teaching preservation and ecology courses in university 7. Some teach drone surveying methods in depth while others don't even mention them. "The fact is, using drones is quite a(n) 8 to theinterdisciplinary(跨学科的) 'unknown' of engineering, and potentially an area where lecturers may not feel confident to teach yet," Serge Wich, an expert in primate biology says. "Students are taught about 9 technologies such as automatic sound recorders, but drones are often missing from university teaching. Consequently, drone use among researchers is still fairly 10 and focused on getting photos."
Wich's team of researchers used techniques to develop a fully automated drone technology system that 11 and monitors the health of endangered animals globally. It's designed to be cheap, stable and simple to use, so that local communities in developing countries can operate it 12 without technical background. Yet it's not more widely used on the grounds of researchers' lack of skills to use this technology. In biology, where drones are used, few can program analgorithm(算法) specifically for their preservation or research problem. "There's much that needs to be done to 13 those two worlds and to make AI more user-friendly so that people who can't program can still use the technology," Wich says.
14, the sad truth is that better technology alone will not save any more species from dying out, Greengrass warns. "As human populations increase, so do threats and pressure on wild places. Preservationists are 15 for not doing enough but it's often an issue of people, conflict and governance." Technology may help provide far greater knowledge, but governments still need to act.
