Tracking the Wild 0.66

Tracking the Wild is a wildlife social media platform that is an easy way to explore Africa’s parks & reserves, safely share your wildlife sightings and make a valuable contribution to conservation. The platform takes the concept of crowd-sourcing and uses it to collect the valuable data that conservation research needs to protect Africa’s biodiversity.

The goal is to enrich people’s wildlife experiences and raise awareness of Africa’s wilderness through sustainable tourism. Tracking the Wild’s belief is that our world's wilderness can only be protected when people have the opportunity experience its beauty and contribute towards its preservation.

Tracking the Wild has been specifically built as a platform that the public can safely submit their wildlife sightings without the location data of vulnerable species being made public. This is done by managing what species the public can see within each of the parks/reserves we list. Furthermore, rhino sightings are blocked from the platform and we also withhold the location of any species that is outside of a protected area. By taking this approach, Tracking the Wild provides the public with a platform where they can responsibly share their sightings and simultaneously contribute vast amounts of valuable data to conservation research.

Professor Les Underhill of the Animal Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town explains the value of the app: “Imagine trying to motivate that a species is of conservation concern if you do not have an up-to-date distribution map for the species. Ideally, one would like to have a distribution map that is based on records collected only in the past decade or less. This means that distribution data needs to be updated continuously. This is what this new app helps us to achieve.”

The platform features:
• Latest sightings feed
• Personal sightings history and statistics
• Hotspots - a heatmap of historical sightings (works offline)
• Detailed offline maps for each of the listed parks and reserves
• Species checklists for every park (works offline)
• Species guides covering all birds, mammals and reptiles in each park (works offline)
• A directory of Southern African parks and reserves (All South Africa's National Parks (SANParks) & most major game/nature reserves in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe)
• In app accommodation booking with SafariNow
• All sightings data sent to researchers at the Animal Demography Unit (ADU) at the University of Cape Town and other conservation partners.

Protected areas in Africa: Live safari sightings and maps for the following National Parks, Game Reserves and Nature Reserves:
Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park
Addo Elephant National Park
Agulhas National Park
Anysberg Nature Reserve
Augrabies Falls National Park
Bontebok National Park
Camdeboo National Park
Cederberg Wilderness Area
Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Chobe National Park
De Hoop Nature Reserve
Dinokeng Game Reserve
Etosha National Park
Gamkaberg Nature Reserve
Garden Route National Park
Golden Gate Highlands National Park
Goukamma Nature Reserve
Great Fish River Nature Reserve
Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve
Hwange National Park
iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Ithala Game Reserve
Karoo National Park
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Khutse Game Reserve
Kogelberg Nature Reserve
Kruger National Park
Limpopo-Lipadi Private Game & Wilderness Reserve
Madikwe Game Reserve
Makgadikgadi Pans National Park
Mapungubwe National Park
Marakele National Park
Mokala National Park
Moremi Game Reserve
Mountain Zebra National Park
Namaqua National Park
Ndumo Game Reserve
Nxai Pan National Park
Pilanesberg Game Reserve
Robberg Nature Reserve
Rocherpan Nature Reserve
Somkhanda Game Reserve
Swartberg Nature Reserve
Table Mountain National Park
Tankwa Karoo National Park
Tembe Elephant Park
uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park
Welgevonden Game Reserve
West Coast National Park
and more coming soon...