SNIFFER dogs trained to identify ivory and US military software designed to trace poachers have contributed to a decline of about two-thirds in elephant and rhino poaching in Kenya."We’ve been able to buck the African trend," Kitili Mbathi, director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, said in an interview in Johannesburg. "We’ve seen a decline of 60%-70% in numbers of animals killed since 2013. Poaching is under control at the moment."Poaching of the two species peaked in 2013, prompting the government to devote more money to hiring and equipping rangers, and to stepping up intelligence across the country, Mbathi said.In 2015 the state-run Kenya Wildlife Service began using US military software originally developed to trace improvised explosive devices in conflict zones and adapted to wildlife poaching.The programme, known as #tenBoma, made advanced analyses and predictions of where poachers were likely to strike, Faye Cuevas, a former US army officer now working as chief of staff at the...
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