Nog een vervolg op de gastblog en update van Willie Smits m.b.t. Islands of the Giants d.d. 22-03-2026
Wie kan ons helpen of op weg helpen met onderstaande hulpvraag van Willie Smits???
Er zijn nu trackers en deze zijn ook getest bij de sunbears en ze werken op vele fronten goed. Maar het grote probleem is de batterij en het oplaadsysteem. Het zou mooi zijn als we de trackers ook op zouden kunnen laden in de sluis waar we hun gezondheid controleren. Het ontwerp met de combinatie die Willie beschrijft is er nog niet. Met dit artikel hoopt hij interesse van zo’n producent te genereren. Dit werkt alleen voor orang-oetans in kleine gebieden met een signaal. Willie heeft altijd gezegd niet geschoten altijd mis. Dit ontwerp is er nog niet. Toch moeten de big boys uit de kooien en we moeten leren van dit project. Dus wie o wie helpt ons verder? Maar lees eerst de update van Willie maar.
Tracking our giants
Exciting to soon see our giants moving to the Kalawasen Island. But also honestly a bit worrying, after all nobody has tried yet to let an all-male group of adult orangutans inhabit an island together. Will they fight? Will they establish territories? Are their friendships that developed in the safety of the socialization facility going to last? But a 254 hectare island surrounded by almost impenetrable mangroves and deep mud and an always present dense leaf canopy poses some serious issues to monitor these five orangutans. Sure a thermal drone can help spotting them at night and if they produce their mighty long calls we get a sense of where and how they are. But would it not be nice to track them real time, their movements, their health and be able to stop a fight might it become too serious?
Well I have been looking at electronic tracking bracelets and charging systems and in principal I think all points of my wishlist for an ideal tracking equipment are already applied in various police departments but not in the combination that would be ideal for our orangutans. Let me explain myself and give you an overview of what would be a technical feasible solution. Who knows we can find a partner willing to give it a shot and produce some of these giant proof all round trackers?
First things first, they need to be strong, very strong like giant male orangutan strong. With steel and carbon and special glass fibers this should be the easiest condition to meet. Next they need to be water proof, more specifically seawater proof, not corrosive and water tight like IP68 or better. Next comes the main function, real time tracking (with adjustable intervals) of their spatial movements. And on top of that the monitoring of their body temperature and heartbeat, already implemented in certain electronic monitoring bracelets for sick people. Next on my wish list is the strong speaker to interrupt a fight if it might be too serious or for their trusted carers to speak to them, for instance letting them know there is some sweet honey on the way to the feeding platform. In worst case when a fight seems to become deadly or one of the technicians would be in danger the bracelet should be able to produce an electric shock.
Now an important point, the battery, it has to last a long time at least five days or more. Not a big problem, the newest batteries are very good, but there is the issue of how to charge them since these orangutans will live for many decades. We will not train them to go to a charging station and plug in a cable when the red light blinks. So it will have to be wireless charging, but that requires most of the time very close proximity to work. So we need an enclosure that works like a giant wireless charger. And believe it or not but that technology already exists, it can charge a battery or several devices simultaneously as well with a power of 1.9 kilowatt waves which is perfectly safe for humans and orangutans. In that case our special sluice holding cage for inspecting the orangutans (after paying them a goo bribe like raisins, honey or fruit of course) needs to have a fine mesh around it a bit like the enclosed box in the microwave. This system is called wireless charging with Mesh QSCR or volumetric wireless power. For anyone interested here is an article describing the technology and a link to a short video explaining the principle.
Video volumetric wireless power: Quasistatic Cavity Resonance for Ubiquitous Wireless Power Transfer
I wonder if there are any takers? Here are some of the model tracking bracelets. Of course we will have to make sure that the wireless communication on the island is always available, this we could do from the security posts. Looking forward to any reactions.
Willie
