Australian
wildlife is becoming increasingly threatened due to loss of habitat, in fact
this country has the highest extinction rate in the world! Most people are
unaware of the amazing biodiversity that still exists-even in our suburbs,
because many species are nocturnal and hard to observe. Volunteers working to restore the Mermaid Pool
(and its bushland surrounds) at Manly Vale in Sydney, have come up with a
solution. They are producing nesting boxes with inbuilt cameras which will
provide homes for wildlife (acting as surrogate tree hollows) and help provide
the community with knowledge of their local species.
The nesting
boxes will be located in areas of remnant bushland and some will be donated to
nearby schools and businesses. Vision from inside the boxes will be transmitted
live via the internet, using high tech telemetry, to provide an amazing
educational and conservation tool.
The impact
will be to not only boost the breeding capability for possums, birds and micro
bats but also give local residents and students an amazing insight into the
wildlife that exists in their area. With more knowledge and empathy will,
hopefully, come a desire to help protect wildlife and habitat. Biodiversity is
disappearing around the globe and city dwellers often don't care because they
have become estranged from the beauty of nature...here is a wonderful
opportunity to get the urban population to reconnect! The local
volunteer environment group (Save Manly Dam Catchment Committee) is overseeing
this project and specialist nesting boxes are being made by retired volunteers
at the "Men's Shed".
IT
expert, Paul, is putting the technical aspects of the project together:- Based on the Raspberry Pi single-board-computer and the new Raspberry Pi micro
camera, video and images will be shared via the world wide web. This will
include real time views of the site and activities within the new nesting
boxes. Nesting box in addition to a Raspberry Pi computer will be connected to
a Mesh wireless network which connects to the internet. Additionally each box
will be powered by a dry-cell battery that is charged via photo voltaic solar
collectors. As many of the residents are nocturnal, they will illuminated their nesting boxes
with infra Red which the cameras pick will up as monochrome images.
The nesting
boxes will be delivered to the Mermaid Pool at 12 noon on June 22nd
2013. Meet outside the UNSW Water Laboratory gates, Western corner of King St,
Manly Vale. Martyn Robinson from the
Australian Museum will also be on hand to talk about local ecology.
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| An orphaned Ringtail Possum |
