Picture this - you're sitting in front of the TV at home when an alert pops up on the screen. There's been an incursion at one of the predator traps you're monitoring. Instead of pulling on your boots and jacket you make a quick swipe and Coronation Street is paused
The WWF Conservation Innovation Awards
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Last year's award winner, TrapMinder, and inventor Gian Badraun. Photo / Supplied
Colin's most important invention was the disposable hypodermic syringe, now found around the world and used by millions of people. Colin had a passion for conservation, and while working with colleagues studying introduced wild goat and deer populations, had the idea that the animals would be much easier to handle if a dose of tranquillizer could be administered from a distance. The result was the tranquillizer dart, now a vital tool in wildlife conservation around the world.
Colin's ideas were not developed in isolation; he knew that for ideas to blossom, they must first be fostered through collaboration.
WWF's 2015 Conservation Innovation Awards will seek to harness this very spirit of working together in the search for our next Gian Badraun or Colin Murdoch. For the first time, inventors, conservationists, inquiring minds and ideas people will be able to propose, critique and refine ideas in real time through an online ideas platform. It's a 21st century way to getting the answers to our most pressing conservation issues, and might just be one small step towards a drone you can launch from the couch.
Find out more about the Conservation Innovation Awards, taking place today, Monday 7 September, at wwf.org.nz/innovation
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