Chelonia mydas) make the perilous journey from their nest to the ocean. By Lucy HicksConservation scientist Kim Williams-Guillén was wracking her brain to come up with a way to save endangered sea turtles from egg poachers when she had an “aha” moment: If she placed a fake egg containing a GPS tracker in the reptiles’ nests, she might be able to track the thieves.The idea won her the 2015 Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge—and a $10,000 prize.
Now, Williams-Guillén, a conservation scientist at the environmental nonprofit Paso Pacífico, and a multinational team of colleagues have not only made the device—dubbed the InvestEGGator—but have also published the results of their first field test.