Solar Power Gives Ideal Environment and Energy to Study Elephants in Remote Area

A rare opportunity was created by the researchers of the Stanford University to carefully observe, videotape and photograph wild elephants at the Mushara waterhole. A home to hundreds of wild animals such as rhinos, giraffes, hyenas and lions, Mushara waterhole is an isolated oasis in Etosha National Park in Namibia.

A team of researchers transformed a corner of southern Africa into a high-tech field camp run entirely on sunlight. The seasonal solar-powered research camp helped them in their finding.

In order to keep the critters far from camp avoid them wandering near the study area, the team that operated from June through August this year considered fixing a solar-powered electric fence around the perimeter that delivered a harmless shock to any animal that got too close.

"It will just scare them away," said researcher Tim Rodwell, a Stanford MD who teaches medicine at the University of California-San Diego. "A lion tried to touch the fence in the far corner. He only tried it once."

"One of the really special aspects of solar energy is that it allows us to be in this incredibly remote area that's closed to tourists and is off the grid," said lead researcher Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, an instructor at the Stanford School of Medicine and a collaborating scientist at Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology. She is also co-founder of Utopia Scientific, a non-profit organization that promotes awareness about science, conservation and public health.

"We get to watch elephant society unfold before us in a very quiet environment -- no generators, no people, no vehicles," she added.

O'Connell-Rodwell the first scientist to demonstrate that low-frequency calls produced by elephants generate powerful vibrations in the ground, has been been studying elephant communication at Mushara for 20 years.

In order to identify the individual elephants, Stanford undergraduate Patrick Freeman took hundreds of high-resolution photographs using a camera run on solar-powered batteries.

In addition to this, the team used solar power to operate a powerful speaker system that delivered low-frequency sounds to elephants gathered at the waterhole. The solar panels provided enough electricity to run a makeshift elephant dung laboratory, operate camera and editing equipment for a documentary video crew, and power two 12-volt refrigerators stocked with fresh meat, dairy products and beer.

Above all the team was able to stay connected to the Internet due to solar energy there allowing O'Connell-Rodwell to send numerous blog posts.

The solar panels and the rest of the electrical system were dismantled at the end of the season when the researchers returned home.