The World Wildlife Fund is turning to unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs) in a bid to tackle an upsurge in illegal poaching of
rhinos, elephants, and tigers carried out by increasingly
sophisticated and well-equipped cartels. The WWF provided two
hand-launchable UAVs to the government of Nepal in 2012. In
December, Google awarded the organization $5 million to develop
more advanced UAV systems. The hope is that these systems will
reduce the poaching of endangered mammals and save the lives of
the park rangers assigned to protect them. Ars spoke to WWF's
Crawford Allan to learn more the UAV system, dubbed SMART, that
is now in development. A recent rise in rhino poaching is
thought to have been fueled by increasing demand in Vietnam,
where, like China, rhino horn is prized—with little to no
supporting evidence—as a medical treatment for a host of
diseases and conditions including cancer (though not, as is
sometimes assumed in the West, impotence). Much of Vietnam's
rhino horn is supplied from South Africa, where r