Beast mode: Can technology help protect some of the world’s most endangered animals?

We’re facing a global ecosystem crisis. Within the last 50 years alone, wildlife populations across the world have declined by a shocking 69 percent. But technology, with help from citizen science, is emerging as one of wildlife’s greatest allies. In this episode of Solve for X, we explore how remote sensing, robot boats and DNA analysis could revolutionize wildlife preservation, offering hope for everything from insects to whales.

Featured in this episode: 

• James Snider is the vice president of science, knowledge and innovation at World Wildlife Fund Canada.  
• Elizabeth Clare is an associate professor of biology at York University in Canada. Her research studies biodiversity at all levels, developing novel genetic methods that address some of the biggest challenges in biodiversity science.
• Peter Fretwell is a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey. He’s the principal investigator of the Wildlife From Space Program, studying wildlife using satellite imagery.
• Madeleine Bouvier-Brown is a marine project scientist at Open Ocean Robotics. She handles the deployment of robot boats, retrieving data and analyzing it to deepen our understanding of the oceans.

Further reading:

• Loss of sea ice causes catastrophic breeding failure for emperor penguins
• Adventure on high seas inspired ocean drone
• Global wildlife populations have declined by 69 percent since 1970, WWF report finds
• Scientists can suck animal DNA literally out of thin air
• Caribou are vanishing at an alarming rate. Is it too late to save them?

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.