CyberTracker has grown from a simple hypothesis: The art of tracking may have been the origin of science. If this is the case, then scientific reasoning may be an innate ability of the human mind. This means that everyone should be able to make a contribution to science.
Furthermore, it implies that modern-day trackers should be able to do science. However, the best trackers in Africa cannot read or write. To overcome this problem, the CyberTracker software was developed in 1996 with an icon-based user interface for a PDA connected to a GPS. This enabled trackers to record complex geo-referenced data on animal behaviour.
Releasing CyberTracker as Freeware resulted in a proliferation of projects worldwide. It requires no programming skills to develop a data capture Application and no GIS skills to analyse and view the data in tables and maps. CyberTracker projects therefore involve bottom-up, self-defined independent initiatives, resulting in rich, diverse data.
From its origins with the Kalahari Bushmen, CyberTracker projects have been initiated to monitor gorillas in the Congo, snow leopards in the Himalayas, butterflies in Switzerland, the Sumatran rhino in Borneo, jaguars in Costa Rica, birds in the Amazon, wild horses in Mongolia, dolphins in California, marine turtles in the Pacific and whales in Antarctica.
CyberTracker is being used by indigenous communities, in national parks, scientific research, citizen science, environmental education, forestry, farming, social surveys, health surveys, crime prevention and disaster relief.
CyberTracker software has been downloaded more than 80 000 times from more than 210 countries. Our ultimate vision is that smart phone users worldwide will use CyberTracker to capture observations on a daily basis. Data streaming into the Cloud will make it possible to visualise changes in the global ecosystem in real time.
