“Throughout June, Okambara is a bone-dry expanse of thorny trees and shrubs. Although the Sun is shining, cool winds keep the park’s animals vigilant, as the wildebeest, zebras and giraffes sniff out scents on the breeze, which could alert them to danger now moving through the bush. Yet the skilled intruders remain hidden downwind.

As the hunters close in on the game, the rifle lefts out a boom. Fear jolts through each species: springbok bounce, skittish zebra break into gallop, and the wildebeest turn and race, some not stopping for hundreds of metres, as they barrel away from danger into Okambara’s wide-open salt plains.

Scientists are now able to study these signals written in animal panic thanks to a new satellite system, named Icarus, which is tracking animal movement and behaviour on an unprecedented scale from space. By monitoring how animals react to the presence of human intruders, conservationists hope to pinpoint and crack down on poachers.”

From BBC.