After the successful completion of Phase 1 trials, PWF and SpoorTrack are now advancing
to Phase 2 trials of their innovative solar-powered GPS collars for painted wolves, marking a
major milestone in wildlife conservation technology.
In 2023, PWF set out to facilitate the creation of an affordable, reliable, and lightweight
alternative to traditional GPS collars, designed specifically for painted wolves. They formed a
with SpoorTrack, a leading tracking company, and supported them with the development of
solar-powered GPS collars which could revolutionise monitoring efforts for painted wolf
conservation.
During Phase 1 trials, which began in mid-2023, V1 collars were deployed on dogs in
Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa to various painted wolf conservation
organisations. The performance of the V1 collars were impressive overall, with three still
active in Q3 of 2024. However, some of the collars failed, and the trial process identified the
causes. Design limitations, such as a small solar cell and imbalanced weight distribution,
impacted the field performance of some collars.
Learning from the trial results, SpoorTrack has developed the enhanced V2 collar, featuring
larger solar cells, better weight distribution, and several other upgrades aimed at making
significant improvements on the original design. These refinements offer great potential to
increase the collars’ effectiveness in the field.
Phase 2 trials commenced in Q4 of 2024, with V2 collars being delivered to painted wolf
organisations across Southern Africa and the collars are now live on dogs at test sites. PWF
and SpoorTrack receive continuous feedback to monitor the results in the field and a final
assessment will be carried out in Q3 of 2025 to consider whether they achieve their potential
and outperform all other collars in the field.
