Close-up view of an endangered Grévy's zebra

© Edwin Giesbers/Getty Image

Combating extinction with citizen science

Just as every human has a unique set of fingerprints, each zebra has a subtly different pattern of stripes–and that trait is proving valuable in a new conservation effort. A nonprofit conservation project called Wildbook utilizes crowd-sourced photos to identify and track individual animals that belong to threatened species. But it doesn’t just identify zebras. The effort extends to whale sharks, manta rays, giraffes, and more. This new technology provides a noninvasive way to study the species over time. We’re fans of the project, especially since it helps friends like our Grévy's zebra, which is endangered.