In recent years, drone technologies have been explored for a range of applications in conservation including (but not limited to) mapping, biodiversity inventories, antipoaching patrols, wildlife tracking, and fire monitoring. The rise of customizable, open-source drones like those of ArduPilot and OpenROV hold promise for more effective conservation applications, and combined with other monitoring sensors and devices, they are capable of collecting high-resolution data quickly, noninvasively, and at relatively low cost.
However, challenges remain in putting these tools to use. A recent paper reviewing 256 conservation drone projects highlighted some of these major obstacles, ranging from unintended social and ecological consequences of drone operations to still prohibitive costs, both in terms of hardware and in terms of storing and processing large volumes of data. The longstanding challenge of power/battery life remains as well.
If you're considering trying out drones for yourself, and want to explore the possibilities and understand the major conversations happening around this technology, check out these beginner's resources and conversations from across the WILDLABS platform:
Three Resources for Beginners:
- Conservation Technology User Guidelines Issue 5: Drones, World Wildlife Fund | Drones, best practices, ethics, regulations, case studies
- WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Recording: Drones, Craig Elder, Dr. Claire Burke, and Gabriel Levin | Drones, thermal camera, wildlife crime, ML, biologging
- New Paper: Drones and Bornean Orangutan Distribution, Sol Milne | Drones, data analysis, citizen science, community science, primates
Three Forum Threads for Beginners:
- Curious about radio-tracking with drones? | Wildlife Drones, Biologging (5 replies)
- Drones for GIS Best practice Document | Adrian Hughes, Drones (10 replies)
- WWF Conservation Technology Series: Drones in Conservation | Aurélie Shapiro, Drones (7 replies)
Three Tutorials for Beginners:
- How do I use a drone to capture radio-tracking data? | Debbie Saunders, Tech Tutors
- How do I choose the right drone for my conservation goals? | Shashank Srinivasan, Tech Tutors
- How do I strategically allocate drones for conservation? | Elizabeth Bondi, Tech Tutors
Want to know more about using drones, and learn from experts in the WILDLABS community? Make sure you join the conversation in our Drones group!
*Header photo: Parker Levinson, Point Blue Conservation Science
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- @jennamkline
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PhD Student @ tOSU, Autonomous Drones for Collective Animal Behavior Studies
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- @Mathilde
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Natural Solutions
Engineer, I work for a web development company on web application projects for biodiversity conservation. I'm especially interested by camera traps, teledetection and DeepLearning subjects.
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Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB), Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Behavioral Ecologist
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Systems Engineer and Zoologist
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An environmentalist and biologist who has been working to inspire and prepare the next generation of conservationists through an inclusive and engaging learning environment.
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Wildlife Drones
Wildlife Drones has developed the world’s most innovative radio animal-tracking system using drones so you can track your radio-tagged animals like never before.
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International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Key Biodiversity Areas Programme Officer, IUCN
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British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
Machine learning researcher at the British Antarctic Survey
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Assiniboine Park Conservancy
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I am geographer who is interested on mapping, GIS , biodiversity and communities.
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Katherine Chou, Product Lead at Google[x] Labs, sees technology as a way to make the impossible, possible. She explores differences in how wildlife NGOs and the tech sector think and plan, and what the conservation ...
22 December 2015
John Amos, President of SkyTruth, explores how remote sensing is being used in conservation today and the importance of sky-truthing. He examines the role that citizen scientists can play in increasing transparency in...
21 December 2015
New technologies offer a lot of potential for conservation, but are there potential risks to deploying these new technologies? In this first thought piece for the Ethics of Conservation Tech Group, Dr Chris Sandbrook...
2 November 2015
September 2024
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December 2023
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>>>Ideally I'd be able to log angle/acceleration data (IMU), GPS (XYZ) >>>camera-trigger events (hotshoe of camera) to an SD card. The Pixhawk class... |
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Drones | 2 years 7 months ago | |
Drone program manager at Island Conservation - https://www.islandconservation.org/drone-program-coordinator/ Senior Specialist, Flight... |
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Drones | 2 years 11 months ago | |
Hi Egil, The group I'm involved with works with remote communities in/around North and South Luangwa National Parks and there is some expansion happening to community areas... |
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Drones | 3 years 5 months ago | |
Here is a very interesting conference with different tech approaches about Automated Forest Restoration where we collaborated with our... |
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Drones | 3 years 5 months ago | |
Hi! Interesting subject indeed. In most cases where UAVs are used in nature "documentaries" it is pretty obvious to a behavioural biologist that the animals... |
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Drones | 3 years 5 months ago | |
Hi Wildlabbers, This week is the last episode of Tech Tutors Season 2! Elizabeth Bondi tackled the question "How do I... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones | 3 years 6 months ago | |
Hello Aurelie, Thank you for sharing this info. I just downloaded the brochure and I am sure I will find it very useful. I have senseFly's eBee Classic, with RGB,... |
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Drones | 3 years 6 months ago | |
Hi Wildlabbers, Tech Tutors Season 2 continues with our fifth episode, featuring Shashank Srinivasan who will tackle the question... |
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Drones | 3 years 7 months ago | |
The UFO project is an H2020 programme dedicated to supporting the development of innovative products and services by integrating ... |
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Drones | 3 years 7 months ago | |
Hi Isla, That's something that the drone world really needs to take on because there can be a world of difference in drone size, prop types and motor types to reduce impact... |
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Drones | 3 years 7 months ago | |
Hello Shashank, I found your post very interesting - congratulations on looking at the ethical side of this technology! One of the reasons that our organisation,... |
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Drones | 3 years 9 months ago | |
Very cool, thanks for sharing, Adrian! We'll put this up on Twitter as well. |
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Drones | 3 years 10 months ago |
Western Section of The Wildlife Society 2023
25 January 2023 2:09am
Interview for Technologies in Conservation
24 November 2022 10:07am
16 January 2023 5:16pm
Happy to contribute [email protected]
17 January 2023 5:12pm
My original background is in ecology and conservation, and am now in the elected leadership of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware which convenes researchers developing open source tech for science. I am not working on a specific piece of technology right now, but am happy to contribute some higher-level views for your interview if that helps.
International Congress for Conservation Biology
16 January 2023 2:53pm
Conservation Technology Intern (Vietnam)
11 January 2023 5:00pm
Crowdfunding Aerial Baseline Study of Ghost Gear in Koh Phangan, Thailand
18 December 2022 11:06am
We are developing a project in Thailand, using drones to locate lost & discarded fishing gear across Koh Phangan, Thailand.
We're 86% there & only need $1500 to get us over the line. If you can help us, we would really appreciate it!
This project uses drones to create a baseline survey of lost fishing gear & document effects of entanglement on marine species.
We are working with Core Sea & Koh Phangan Sea Guardians to develop a locally led method for ongoing monitoring for discarded fishing gear, using drones.
Thank you, Sol, Tania & Kat
12 PhD Positions - WildDrone
1 December 2022 4:45pm
Picking up signal of GPS tag
10 November 2022 11:29am
16 November 2022 10:54am
Thanks Carly! I've been in awe of what Wildlife Drones is doing, but as you say my work at the moment is focussed on existing GPS units rather than telemetry for tracking. I'll still reach out & ask though. Thanks for your help! :)
16 November 2022 10:55am
Hi Kim! Thanks for sharing, this is really interesting! I'll check out the website & see what I can find out about the mechanics of the device. Thanks again!
21 November 2022 5:25pm
Hey Sol,
The only way for you to collect information from a GPS tag attached to a FAD is if that tag transmits that data to the drone. Unfortunately most receiver packages are a bit too large for hobbyist-style drones (from what I've seen).
Depending on the range/distance from shore, you might be able to have a shore-based receiver system?
Shark Lab Data Analyst
24 October 2022 7:12pm
New conservation tech articles from Mongabay
20 October 2022 7:45pm
Conservation Technology Intern (Vietnam)
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19 October 2022 9:22am
Frontiers Symposium: Digital tools for reversing environmental degradation
5 October 2022 10:23am
Conservation Tech Directory - new update!
29 August 2022 2:38pm
23 September 2022 5:26pm
Congrats on the milestone Carly and Gracie!
26 September 2022 10:07pm
Thanks so much!!
Senior Conservation Technology Expert Position (Consultancy) with the Global Wildlife Program
22 September 2022 5:35pm
Collecting Critically Endangered Plants on Cliffs using a Drone
16 September 2022 7:49pm
CFP - transnational biodiversity monitoring (from European Biodiversity Partnership)
14 September 2022 1:42pm
Catch Up with the Variety Hour: September 2022
6 September 2022 12:31pm
Conservation Technology Research Internship
26 August 2022 4:58pm
Become a Scientist Pilot!
12 August 2022 5:20pm
Research Technician - Unoccupied Aircraft Systems Pilot and Geospatial Analyst
10 August 2022 10:40pm
3yr Postdoctoral Associate: Remote Sensing and Unoccupied Aircraft Systems
10 August 2022 5:29pm
Protecting endangered megafauna through AI analysis of drone images in a low-connectivity setting: a case study from Namibia
9 August 2022 5:08pm
Just sharing our latest paper in PeerJ that describes the use of drones in a low-connectivity setting to help monitor and protect megaherbivores. Please contact [email protected] for any information.Thanks everyone!
The Foes and Floes of Labelling Aerial Pictures Manually
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13 July 2022 12:43am
A Triphibian Surveillance Vehicle
9 July 2022 2:23pm
New Conservation Tech Directory update
27 June 2022 4:45pm
Cofounder needed
9 June 2022 4:23pm
17 June 2022 1:14pm
What about developing a drone conservation training course for field conservation staff teaching specific skills for specific research needs.
17 June 2022 6:54pm
How exciting @Joyeeta ! I'd love to learn more about the companies and projects you worked on, can you share more info about them?
I once chatted to an entrepreneurial advisor with a couple of my conservation tech ideas, and he said my ideas are good/impactful but don't make for a product worth millions of $$$ of turnover per year that would interest investors. So I am very curious about how you got your conservation tech businesses off the ground!
18 June 2022 8:33pm
Some folks doing work in this space - Wildlife Drones, Conservation Drones, UAV Wild, AfricanDrones, Oceans Unmanned, Geonadir.
Airships for Wildlife Management and Research
9 December 2021 7:13am
15 January 2022 6:23am
Sure! Let's chat.
15 January 2022 6:24am
Our Aircraft is certified in South Africa. And we are working with multiple Civil Aviation Authorities around the world to get flight approvals. We are open to discussing the projects in the meantime.
7 June 2022 1:04pm
Hi
I can help...I think I have a few ideas where this can work.
Thanks
Smithsonian Magazine: "Underwater Roombas" scan southern California coast for DDT barrels
4 June 2022 7:30pm
16 January 2023 2:42pm
I'd be happy to chat with you if you wanted! My expertise is within passive acoustic monitoring particularly. The Conservation Tech Directory might be useful for you in identifying relevant actors within the space.