A Software tool for monitoring wildlife population levels

Abstract

Information Technology is today being applied in many sectors to ease decision making. Wildlife monitoring is not being left behind. In this study, a software tool for monitoring wildlife population levels has been designed. It was necessitated by the failure of the Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) management to use the current complex manual calculations to utilize wildlife census results to determine carrying capacity, minimum economic population levels, culling/cropping, and restocking levels. The project was therefore meant to design a software tool that would monitor the population of major wildlife species in PAs as well as give warnings when population levels become abnormal, to enable management take action. The software designed is composed of different processes and sub processes including databases, Graphical User Interface (GUI), system administration, security controls and report generation. The system has made several achievements, notably that users are now able to input census results into the system and retrieve any information on the monitoring parameters. The system is able to generate population level reports as and when they are needed. Although the researcher performed an alpha test with satisfactory results, a beta test is yet to be done with the users. Meanwhile the study identifies a need for similar system to monitor vegetation growth levels in PAs so as to get a complete picture of the ecosystem.