Social Innovation Wildlife Website Created by 16 Year Old Boy That Attracts Google

A 16-year-old schoolboy, Nadav Ossendryver, has created a hi-tech social innovation solution that provides real-time updates on wildlife sightings in South Africa's world famous Kruger National Park.  This young whizz-kid has developed LatestSightings.com, which has since caught Google's attention, which wants to find a way to commercialise Nadav's idea. His website reports live wildlife sightings from the Kruger National Park, and allows visitors to the Park to track the animals and see them in action in nature.

Nadav has set up LatestSightings and in just eight months, he has gained 18,000 followers from around the world from countries such as the U.S, India and Britain. His updates are along the lines of "Leopard feeding in tree"; "3 wild dogs"; "2 male lions 4km south of lower Sabie across river bank.' However, there is also a strong positive side to Nadav's work and Web site: it holds the contact numbers to report rhino poaching. Unfortunately, the killing of rhinos has been driven by the rising demand for its horn in the Far East and has resulted in 281 of these endangered species dying this year.

This social innovation idea came to Nadav because he was fed up asking his parents to ask passing motorists in the Kruger Park where the best wildlife sightings were. He took things into his own hands and set up a blog that grew into Kruger Sightings. He is directly engaged with people, asking them for their animal sightings at the Park and posts updates each morning onto the site that he receives from visitors using Twitter, Facebook, BlackBerry messenger or who leave messages on the website itself.


Kruger Park is the home of the African elephant, the lion, rhinoceros, Cape buffalo and leopard. It is the second largest reserve in Africa and become a destination for travellers across the globe. Located in one of the most ecologically heterogeneous regions of Southern Africa, the vastly shifting landscapes of the park connect expanses of grassy planes, traverse thorny woodland thickets. Established in 1898, Kruger spans nearly 2m hectares and contains a rich diversity of species: 336 types of trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammals.

South Africa National Parks has made Nadav their first virtual honorary ranger! While, the Endangered Wildlife Trust Species has made him one of their ambassadors and he has earned the title of 'Eco Star', which he certainly is...and this young explorer recently said, "I can tell you every lion I saw, what it was doing, where it was and the weather at the time. I love everything about the game reserve. You can go 1,000 times and never see the same thing. I could spend all day there, but not all day on the beach." Nadav is a hero for today's environment.

Photo Credit: Latestsightings.com