Until the route of poaching and dark trade is identified in the 'fake sea turtle egg' operation inspired by the crime drama
Sea turtle eggs are a delicacy in Malaysia and other countries, so
InvestEGGator Sea Turtle Eggs
https://pasopacifico.org/project/investeggator-sea-turtle-eggs/
Using GPS-enabled decoy turtle eggs to track illegal trade: Current Biology
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20) 31255-0
Decoy smart turtle eggs leave illegal traffickers with egg on their face --Scimex
https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/decoy-turtle-eggs-shows-which-illegal-traffickers-have-it-on-their-face
GPS-equipped decoy eggs reveal wildlife smuggling routes in Costa Rica
https://newatlas.com/environment/gps-equipped-decoy-eggs-wildlife-smuggling-routes/
The operation, called the 'Invest EGGator,' was carried out in response to the ' Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge, ' a project to protect wildlife with technology carried out by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). A research team led by conservation ecologist Dr. Kim Williams-Gillen saw in the drama ' Breaking Bad ' the Drug Enforcement Administration attaching a GPS device to a container containing chemicals to investigate drug smuggling. , I thought it might be possible to identify the smuggling route in a similar way.
'In the drama' THE WIRE, 'two investigators secretly recorded a drug dealer's conversation with a voice device inside a tennis ball. The sea turtle egg is a ping-pong ball. It looks like this. We created InvestEGGator by combining the two ideas into one, 'says Dr. Williams-Gillen.
The research team uses a 3D printer to output a sphere like a sea turtle's egg and paint it to resemble the real thing. With a GPS device inside the sphere that sends a signal once an hour, we placed one sphere device per sea turtle nest. This is because poachers usually pick up the entire egg in a nest.
As a result, when the eggs were poached, 25% of the device was removed, while the remaining 75% remained in the hands of the poachers. In addition, it has been confirmed that the eggs that remained without poaching hatched safely even if there was a device, and the device will not damage the eggs.
From the signals of the stolen egg-shaped device, the research team identified five poaching and trading groups. From a legal point of view, researchers say it's far more valuable to pinpoint the delivery location than to catch poachers on the spot.
The shortest distance to the delivery location found by tracking was about 2 km from the beach to the local bar, and the longest distance was 137 km from the beach to the inland supermarket. Eggs were not sold in supermarkets, but were moved further to private homes, so supermarkets are one of the transit points, and private homes are believed to be the actual place of sale. While it is beneficial to know where to deliver, the fact that local communities such as bars and supermarkets are involved in buying and selling eggs and providing information shows the seriousness of the problem and the difficulty of solving it. The researchers say.
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