Illegal poaching has likely taken the lives of at least 394 rhinos in 2020, a number that is on track to increase this year. The illegal animal trade is also thought to kill tens of thousands of elephants annually and has left the Grevy’s zebra—an endangered species—with fewer than 3,000 adults in the world. Now, to help solve the conservation crisis, African antipoachers have found an unlikely ally: a Swedish electric bike company.
The company, Cake, has started a pilot program of sending its off-road electric motorbikes to Africa for use by antipoaching patrollers, who rely on motorcycles to patrol and stop illegal hunters. But while motorcycles are great for getting around the wilderness areas the rangers need to protect, they have some major downsides: they’re expensive to run, contribute to pollution, and, perhaps most of all, their loud engines make it difficult for rangers to stealthily patrol the wilderness. As it assists in reaching conservation goals, the pilot program also allows the bike company to learn how its vehicles perform in harsh conditions, so they can be improved.
Cake first teamed with theSouthern African Wildlife College (SAWC), a conservation-training institution based near Kruger National Park in South Africa, in January 2021. The college has trained 10,000 field rangers in 127 parks in 56 countries in the world, protecting a million acres of land, helping to conserve lions, cheetahs, elephants, and other wildlife. In order to make its conservation efforts more efficient and meaningful, SAWC often adopts new technologies and tests them in real-life scenarios.To find and arrest illegal poachers, rangers typically use motorbikes because they’re fast and agile. But, combustion-engine bikes are loud, and poachers can hear rangers approaching from as far as 45 minutes away. The noise factor rang especially true for Cake founder Stefan Ytterborn, who confesses that, before starting his company in 2016, “motorcycles really annoyed me” because of their noise. When he first started playing with the relatively quieter electric bikes, other first-time riders were more inclined to get involved, with “no roaring noise scaring them off,” he says.
Since then, Cake has designed three main bike models: an urban commuter bike, a bike made for short-haul carrying of small loads—and, an off-roader. They tweaked this back-country model to be “engineered and tuned toward Africa,” creating theKalk AP(which stands for “antipoaching”). It’s almost completely silent when moving slowly, as opposed to a traditional off-roader, which has a decibel level similar to a lawn mower. The Kalk AP is also designed especially for the hot, dry, dusty, and muddy conditions of the African bush, with 18-inch off-road tires, a suspension modified for low maintenance, and enhanced durability—and is able to reach speeds of more than 45 miles per hour.Recognize your company's culture of innovation by applying to this year's Best Workplaces for Innovators Awards before the final deadline, April 5.