In a world where funding for national parks and rangers isn’t always in the budget, conservationists have to look to technologies to help protect the millions of acres that some of the world’s most threatened species make their home.  The World Wildlife Fund has developed remote controlled planes that use simple enough technology to be launched by hand and be powered by rechargeable electric batteries.  Click the image above to go to the story in the BBC:

Conservationists in Nepal will soon start using special drones…developed by the global wildlife organisation, WWF.

The small-scale, remote-controlled drones are still being refined. They are light enough to be launched by hand and fly a pre-programmed route of up to 20km (12.5 miles), filming the ground below with a stills or video camera.

Running costs are low, too. They are driven by electric batteries which can be recharged from the grid in about half an hour. That should make them affordable for conservationists in developing countries where budgets for wildlife protection tend to be modest.