Hardshell has created numerous novel devices for conservation purposes. These include tools for exploration and data gathering, such as semiautonomous and fully autonomous environmental monitoring. We have also made great strides using emerging technology for active wildlife management, that is, changing the behavior and distribution of problematic species or reducing their reproductive success to lower their numbers over time.
After aggressive Research and Development work over the last several years we are actively using the tools we have generated:
Remote Egg Oiling (REO)- We have extended traditional egg oiling, a method for preventing bird egg hatching, to include nests out of normal reach of the ground. Using our patent-pending Remote Fluid Application System technology, our devices are now in wide use as practical tools to reduce out of control raven population growth. We are promoting their use on a wider array of problem bird species over time in a wider range of applications to benefit a longer list of threatened and endangered species.
Current conservation use: REO is being used to reduce raven nesting success across California’s deserts for desert tortoise conservation and for the benefit of sage grouse in the Great Basin Desert of California and Nevada. In the past five years we have prevented thousands of raven eggs from hatching and are now examining nesting distribution data to see if ravens are changing their nest site choices in response.
The future: Wider geographic application of REO for conservation, both of desert tortoises and sage grouse and of a wider variety of threatened and endangered species beset by avian predators.
The Techno-Tort™