How Digital Matter IoT Devices Help Monitor Wildlife in AWC Sanctuaries

Australia's rugged, sunburnt country is home to some of the world's most unique and threatened wildlife and habitats, making conservation efforts vital to preserve its natural heritage. Feral cats and goats pose major environmental and economic problems to Australia’s ecologically significant landscapes.

Feral cats are ruthless predators, with studies estimating they kill over 1.5 billion native mammals, birds, reptiles, and frogs, and 1.1 billion invertebrates every year. Wild cats have already contributed to the extinction of over 20 Australian mammal species and are a major cause of decline for many threatened animals, including the bilby, bandicoot, and numbat. 

Feral goats create significant environmental and agricultural problems due to their grazing habits and mobility. Roaming wild goats compete with native animals and domestic livestock for food and water, spread weeds, damage vegetation and property, and contribute to soil erosion. 

For Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), monitoring and managing feral cat and goat populations is a critical priority to mitigate the serious threats they pose to native wildlife and habitats. Traditional goat herd monitoring methods, such as aerial surveys, camera traps, ground surveys, and mustering, are costly, time-consuming, and limited in geographic scope. Tracking cats is even more difficult: stealthy, solitary, and primarily nocturnal creatures, they require resource-intensive approaches, like scat tracking, camera traps, and spotlighting, which deliver patchy, incomplete data and expose rangers to risk from working in remote terrain. 

AWC needed a robust, cost-effective monitoring solution to provide reliable insights into the status of feral cat traps and goat herd locations. Solution requirements included the need to perform in extreme environmental conditions and integrate with AWC’s existing systems to improve land management.

Digital Matter devices help improve land management for AWC with IoT.

To gain reliable, on-demand insights into feral goat herd movements and the status of feral cat traps across vast landscapes, AWC turned to an Internet of Things (IoT) solution. IoT solutions offer a scalable, reliable method to remotely monitor feral animal activity across vast and often inaccessible wildlife sanctuaries, delivering data-driven insights without the need for manual checks. The AWC team trialled multiple devices until they discovered how completely Digital Matter's Hawk IoT Datalogger and Oyster3 GPS tracking devices met their unique requirements. 

Attached to the doors of feral cat traps, the Hawk IoT Datalogger features flexible I/O inputs, rechargeable long-life batteries, external antenna options for reliable connectivity in remote areas, and rugged housing suitable for harsh environmental conditions. The Hawk works with a customized trigger box developed by AWC that detects when gates close behind a live animal entering a trap for bait. The Hawk sends real-time alerts over the nearest cellular network to AWC’s customised cloud-based centralised information platform. The platform uses Hawk data to create on-demand insights on a visual map showing each trap's status, open or closed, and issues real-time alerts with GPS location data to rangers' mobile devices if the Hawk detects a closed trap, indicating a trapped animal. Fast response times to trapped animals are critical to comply with animal ethics requirements.  

AWC used the Digital Matter Oyster3 GPS tracker to track locations of feral goat herds moving through its extensive sanctuaries by attaching the device to collars of individual goats in different herds. Its compact design, flexible connectivity, and long-life battery, powering the device for up to ten years, make the Oyster3 ideal for delivering reliable location data even across remote and rugged terrain. 

When herds are on the move, each Oyster3 device transmits GPS location data to a centralized data platform every 15 minutes. When animals stop moving, the Oyster switches to a heartbeat signal every two hours. The platform uses device data, including latitude and longitude coordinates, to create a satellite view map, giving rangers insight into herd locations and movements with an accuracy of within two meters. It also stores historical data that, over time, provides the AWC team with valuable trend insights into herd behaviour and movement patterns.  

With 55 Hawk devices monitoring cat trap status and three Oyster devices monitoring feral goat herd locations, the IoT solution helps the AWC plan and resource targeted interventions, optimise field visits, respond promptly to ecological threats, and improve land management.

AWC QUOTE "We chose Digital Matter devices because they’re built to handle Australia’s harsh conditions, from heavy rain to intense heat and humidity, and consume minimal power. Their ruggedness and reliable coverage in remote areas make them perfect for our work, and the seamless integration of device data with our existing systems is amazing. The Oyster’s size was critical for the goats, letting us track their movements without spooking the tracked animal into leaving the herd. For detecting the status of live cat traps, there was simply no other device that operated as well as the Hawk.”

IoT insights give AWC on-demand visibility to cut costs, save time, and reduce the risks of land management.

On-demand insights into the status of feral cat traps and goat herd locations give AWC's operational and science teams data-driven inputs to act quickly on land management without labour-intensive manual trap checks. Since using the IoT remote monitoring solution to offset manual tracking, AWC has reduced travel time, fuel use, safety risks and improved animal welfare. 

Sensor-integrated traps have proven 100% reliable in alert accuracy, GPS locating and portability. Insight into goat herd locations has increased in all weather conditions, seasons, and environmental conditions. With actionable, data-driven insight at its fingertips, AWC can make faster, better-informed decisions around land management and humane interventions to protect native wildlife and habitats across extensive remote terrain.

AWC QUOTE, “Working with Digital Matter was fantastic. Their team is knowledgeable, responsive, and easy to collaborate with. They helped us fine-tune the devices in the field, adjusting parameters to address false positives during testing, like when crows tamper with traps, optimising the balance between tracking frequency and battery life for goat herds, and ensuring reliable connectivity. Their hands-on support made deploying and optimising the solution smooth and practical.”

Building on the success of their IoT remote monitoring projects, AWC is now exploring additional applications across its sanctuary network. With Digital Matter devices proving their reliability, ruggedness, and integration capabilities, the organisation is trialling remote monitoring of fences, gates, water tanks, and other critical infrastructure. By leveraging IoT solutions in these areas, AWC aims to optimise operational efficiency further, reduce manual checks, and enhance data-driven decision-making to protect native wildlife and manage habitats more effectively across Australia’s vast, diverse landscapes.