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ABC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Outback children learn as they recreate bilby's comeback story in Corner Country
In the remote community of Tibooburra, nine hours' drive north of Adelaide, about 25 children gather to perform in the local hall for about 100 people. The children have made the journey from across Corner Country to tell the story of the return of the bilby five years earlier. Nine-year-old Grace Maxwell is playing the star character of the show, Tilby the bilby, and her sister, Sophie, 12, is playing an ecologist. The performance tells the story of how the bilby, driven to extinction by cats, foxes and rabbits, was successfully reintroduced to the conservation area, Wild Deserts, in Sturt National Park in 2020. Across two enclosures at Wild Deserts, the small mammals' numbers have grown to more than 400. The performance is the result of a 12-month collaboration between the Broken Hill-based literacy charity Big Sky Stories, Wild Deserts and children from outback stations. Ecologist Rebecca West and her husband, project coordinator Dr Reece Pedler, live and work on the conservation area at the intersection of the New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland borders. After raising her three children at Wild Deserts, Ms West, a former science teacher, said the project brought together all her passions. "My motivation for working on the Wild Deserts project has been to make sure that these animals are here for future generations," she said. "What's really driven me with this collaboration is being able to offer that opportunity to give children the right chance to learn the story and then tell the story through their own words and action." As part of the experience, children had an opportunity to attend a quoll and bilby day at Wild Deserts. Bernadette Maxwell, from Mt Shannon station, said Grace and Sophie found the quoll workshops an immersive learning experience. "They learnt not just literacy but how to move like a quoll," she said. "We learned maths because quolls don't have symmetrical spots. "It was really wonderful to put all that learning together and to bring it all together today." Christy Stafford, from Orientos station in Queensland, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Tibooburra, also brought her children to the quoll day. "We didn't really know much ourselves, so there wasn't a great deal we could tell them, but Bec and Reece are just so full of information and it's fantastic that they've been able to do what they have for the area and to let the kids all in and know about it too," she said. At the end of the performance, all the children were given a copy of the picture book, Little Tilby Bilby, written by Ms West and the children. "This story just started naturally flowing and the kids were coming up with their ideas and feeding into the story and we're like, 'Wow, we should just write this into a book,'" she said. Big Sky Stories co-director Jane Vaughan said the book was illustrated by Mia Dyson. "Quite a long time ago [she] was in my year one and year two class and now she's at university," she said. "She is an artist in her own right and we can't wait to see what else she will produce." Ms West is also in the process of writing a story on the quoll. It's been three years since the not-for-profit bookstore Big Sky Stories opened on the main street of Broken Hill. "We very quickly have become part of the far west community and it's not surprising, because I think when you want to stand up and advocate for children in the far west, the community want that too," Ms Vaughan said. The recently released 2024 Australian Early Development Census shows that more than 30 per cent of children in the far west are developmentally vulnerable in at least one of the physical, social, emotional, language or communication domains. "A big part of what Big Sky stories does is create a conversation and engage in a conversation and make books and reading and families gathering around storytelling really important and normal everyday activities," she said.
Associated Press
16-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Cisco: Saving Endangered Species, One Network at a Time
Rhinos, elephants, gorillas, and their habitats, are among the natural treasures protected by Cisco and Connected Conservation Foundation in a 10-year partnership. In 2015, the rhinos of South Africa's Sabi Sand Nature Reserve were under relentless siege. Every night, poachers would break the perimeter of the reserve to target the majestic animals. Not for food or sport but for the rare rhinos' horns, which in some cultures are believed to possess healing powers (in fact, they are made of keratin, the same as human fingernails). The result? A perfect storm in which limited local economic opportunities mixed with high black-market prices. Add in outnumbered, or worse, outgunned park police, and these natural treasures were being pushed towards extinction. A solution was needed, quickly. 'At that time, it was a desperate situation,' said Sophie Maxwell, CEO of Connected Conservation Foundation (CCF), a nonprofit that for 10 years has partnered with Cisco to use digital technologies to help save endangered species in Africa and beyond. 'Forty-five rhinos had been recently poached in Sabi Sands,' Maxwell continued. 'That's when Cisco and Dimension Data, its partner at the time, stepped in to help counter the poaching crisis in South Africa.' With technologies like LoRaWan networks, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, long-range thermal cameras, and automated fence alarms, results came quickly. According to CCF, by 2019 poaching in Sabi Sand had been reduced by 96 percent. But Sabi Sand was just a starting point. Today, Connected Conservation Foundation operates in 35 protected areas across 15 nations, from Kenya and Namibia to Papua New Guinea and Peru. And it protects gorillas, elephants, tree kangaroos, pangolins, leopards, and Andean bears (to name a few), while supporting local communities by enhancing education facilities, providing technology training, and building career opportunities. Fran Katsoudas, Cisco's chief people, policy, and purpose officer, shared her thoughts on the success of the Cisco/CCF partnership. 'For 10 years, Cisco and the Connected Conservation Foundation have been joined by the belief that we can use technology to leave our planet in a better place than we found it,' she said. 'We know that technology can help transform our world in big ways, and that includes helping to protect the world's ecosystems and endangered species. Now, as it accelerates, so can our impact!' Stopping poachers before they strike. Connected Conservation Foundation was the brainchild of Bruce 'Doc' Watson, a co-founder of Johannesburg-based Dimension Data (now part of NTT DATA) who wasted no time getting his chief technology partner Cisco involved. 'Sabi Sand Nature Reserve became a test bed for all this technology innovation,' Maxwell explained. 'It was about looking for solutions to detect threats, monitor ecosystems, and track the movement of wildlife and people across these reserves — to get an early warning of when incursions were happening so that when poachers were entering the reserve, they could intercept and apprehend them before they killed the rhinos to take the horns. And at that time there was no technology being used.' Ian Robertson, Cisco's global business development executive of cloud computing, has been with the project since its inception. At the 10-year mark, he's proud of the program's progress but keeps a clear focus on the future. 'We started in a good spot in the South Africa reserve,' he said, 'but the scope of what we're doing has 1,000 percent expanded. Last year, 32 rare white rhinos were reintroduced at Sabi Sand, which recently reported 500 days poacher-free. And we're protecting all kinds of animals now, not just rhinos. But the program is still evolving, and it's more critical than ever.' Unfortunately, poaching still rages in parts of South Africa and many other places where protected areas lack early warning solutions. But Kenya is one country where CCF and Cisco have built a success story. Today, landscape-scale solutions are deployed across 8 percent of Kenya. And excellent conservation management coupled with surveillance and monitoring technologies have played a key role in eradicating poaching. Between 2012 and 2017, rhino numbers rose by 6 percent. Making conservation work for animals and people For any conservation project, a holistic strategy is imperative. And Rebecka Turner, a Cisco senior global partner marketing manager who, together with Robertson, leads Cisco's partnership with CFF, stressed the importance of moving past animals, ecosystems, and technology to include people. 'A big part of the story,' she said, 'is how CCF is helping the communities. They bring in training and jobs for in-field technicians, and the technologies are now also helping facilitate more peace between the communities, the conservancies, and the animals.' A key starting point is education, especially in raising awareness around the value of intact, living ecosystems — for example, to attract ecotourism, a key economic driver. 'We realized early on,' Robertson said, 'that it's not just about looking at the game reserve to protect the wildlife. Ninety-nine percent of those nearby communities are rural poor, and educational opportunities are limited. Cisco's all about connecting the unconnected and powering an inclusive future. So, there was more for us to do.' To that end, skills training became an essential element. And the Cisco Networking Academy, which has empowered more than 24 million people in 191 countries with networking and cybersecurity skills, was ready to step in. 'Cisco not only brought in the Networking Academy training courses,' Maxwell said, 'but they've also donated digital access points and Wi-Fi to environmental community education facilities. So, we have enabled digital infrastructure for environmental campuses in Uganda, South Africa, and other places. They are training local people for a range of environmental jobs — like protected-area technicians, ecology monitoring, and tourism. It's about creating the skills for nature-based local economies.' Future threats, future innovation Pressures on endangered animals continue to mount, whether from poaching, habitat destruction, the changing climate, or other factors. So, Connected Conservation continues to innovate and expand. In 2021, Airbus Foundation joined forces with Cisco and CCF to contribute high-resolution satellite tracking, an 'eye in the sky,' as Maxwell calls it. When combined with Cisco's networking and IoT technologies, an ever-more precise picture of complex ecosystems emerges. This can include detailed environmental data on crop, soil, and climate impacts, along with deeper understanding of the animals' movements and behaviors. The goal is to reduce human/animal conflicts — for example, helping farmers to coexist with animals by knowing when they are most likely to eat or trample crops — while also providing valuable agricultural information. 'It's about understanding the dynamics of the landscape and the changing environment, the droughts, the floods, and general ecosystem health,' Maxwell explained. 'An understanding of where the flow and dynamics of nature interact with humanity is really important for stopping these conflicts.' Case in point: Namibia's elephants. 'We found that man-made watering holes are one thing that motivates the wildlife,' Maxwell continued. 'And so, mapping the man-made water holes and tracking that against the elephant-collar data, you can understand what motivates their movements and where the elephants are going to move next.' Of course, the more complex CCF's operations become, the more data is generated — lots more. That demands the best security and analytics. Robertson and Maxwell are exploring how newer technologies can contribute — especially as Cisco continues to infuse artificial intelligence into more of its products, along with the capabilities of Splunk, the analytics powerhouse it acquired last year. And of course, all future efforts will include rigorous cybersecurity, an ongoing concern as bad actors continue to gain in sophistication. 'Cisco is our lead partner, our founding partner,' Maxwell concluded, 'and we're so grateful for everything they've done to support us and make this all happen. We're excited to explore and continually harness the best future ecosystem of technologies that will help continue to facilitate our vision.' To support CCF initiatives and get the latest news, visit View original content here. Visit 3BL Media to see more multimedia and stories from Cisco Systems Inc.
