Newswise — The Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society has announced today that it has received a unique gift to help conservationists safeguard some of Africa's most wild areas " a new Cessna aircraft donated by Jeffrey and Darlene Anderson.
WCS conservationist Mike Fay took delivery of the Cessna 182-T on September 20th at Cessna's headquarters in Wichita, Kansas. The plane has been nicknamed "Annie," in memory of the Anderson's niece Annie Myers, who died in July after a long battle with leukemia.
"'Annie' will range over Central Africa and enable conservationist pilots to zero in on and identify individual species and human settlements," Fay said. "We can count roads and rivers accessible by people, electrical power infrastructure and irrigation systems. It will create access in some of the most remote " and most beautiful " areas on the planet."
Fay used a similar plane for the "Megaflyover" a conservation project sponsored by National Geographic, where he hop-scotched the African continent to study the impact of human activity on the wilderness.
The Wildlife Conservation Society chose the Cessna 182 because Cessnas can endure the stress of the African environment.
"All the wild dog and lion radio telemetry is done in a Cessna 182," Fay said. "Following animals over roadless and mountainous terrain can only be done in an airplane. An airplane for conservation projects in East and Central Africa, is what a boat is to a marine program."
The aircraft will be fitted with long-range fiberglass main tanks and tip tanks, a high capacity alternator, back-up vacuum pump, large tires and the equipment needed to make it as "bush worthy" as possible. Cessna for African Conservation.com, a volunteer effort to ensure that researchers and conservationists from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and National Geographic (NGS) have the airborne resources they need, will be paying for the plane's maintenance.
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