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
Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary
Technology Manager at Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary
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Bay Area Older Adults
California Naturalist with Felidae and CDFW
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Wildlife manager. Specialized in mammals, new technologies and abundance estimation
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Aeracoop & Dronecoria
Computer engineer, Drone Pilot, Seed researcher
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Arribada Initiative
Director at Arribada, a UK-based conservation technology research & development organisation
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Zoological Society London (ZSL)
Technical Project Manager in ZSL's Conservation Technology Unit
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"A drone emitting orca sounds will be used in attempt to guide the animal, whose health is fast deteriorating"
1 June 2022
Authors: Geison P Mesquita, Margarita Mulero-Pázmány, Serge A Wich, José Domingo Rodríguez-Teijeiro
29 May 2022
Check out this round-up of three of the latest conservation tech studies and news. See more conservation tech news by subscribing to our bi-monthly digest.
24 March 2022
Fauna & Flora International is seeking a qualified candidate for the position of a Technical Specialist, Analytics to support and grow the use of spatial technologies and analyses for conservation planning and...
21 March 2022
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...
20 October 2021
In their three-part interview from our new series Technical Difficulties, Colby Loucks and Eric Becker share the failures they've encountered and learned from throughout six years of working on the WWF-US Wildlife Crime...
13 October 2021
ZSL's Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation journal has released new research for early view before inclusion in an issue. See the full list of recent open access research papers on RSEC.
22 April 2021
National Geographic is offering funding up to up to $50,000 for conservationists conducting research on how the pandemic has impacted wildlife and conservation work. If you are interested in researching aspects of the...
10 March 2021
How can drones and ATVs protect black-footed ferrets from the plague? In this case study from WWF's Northern Great Plains Program, Black-footed Ferret Restoration Manager Kristy Bly discusses how delivering vaccines to...
17 February 2021
Sol Milne's new paper, Drivers of Bornean Orangutan Distribution across a Multiple-Use Tropical Landscape, is now available. Using drones to detect orangutan nest density in aerial surveys (as shared during our...
12 February 2021
A research mission to determine the impact of the giant A-68a iceberg on one of the world’s most important ecosystems using underwater robotic gliders gets underway this January. A team of scientists, led by British...
13 January 2021
The latest issue of WWF's Conservation Technology Series is about drones and is designed for a broad audience of conservationists. Containing ten case studies, scientific literature, and handy information on getting...
18 November 2020
September 2024
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Ups, it's true :( I hope that you can try to apply anyway. Regards |
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Drones | 7 years 10 months ago | |
Anyone want to work on Elephants (in natural habitat) ? At Pah Muang Wildlife Sanctuary (along to road Chiang Mai to Lampang) there are... |
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Drones | 7 years 10 months ago | |
Unfortunately, I could not see the full article, but the executive summary makes a lot of sense. I think there might be a couple of other considerations. 1) As... |
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Drones | 7 years 11 months ago | |
For anyone interested in an overview of how drones are being deployed for conservation, this piece by Serge Wich (of ConservationDrones.org) provides a... |
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Drones | 8 years ago | |
In April, the Cambridge Conservation Tech Group held its second meetup, which brought together colleagues from RSPB, Birdlife, FFI,... |
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Drones | 8 years 2 months ago | |
Interesting. A case in point is the viral video making the rounds about drone fishing: We've seen an array of inventive uses for drones of late across a whole range... |
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Drones | 8 years 3 months ago | |
I agree that it is likely that a dirigible would probably struggle in a lot of common mapping settings. People do use kites though. If you are interested in developing the flight... |
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Drones | 8 years 3 months ago | |
Hi Lot, great to see you here too. |
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Drones | 8 years 4 months ago | |
Hi Sean, Thanks for sharing your survey - is there a specific date you'll be closing the survey? It'd be great if you could share the results of the... |
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Drones | 8 years 4 months ago | |
Hi Daniel Thanks for the interest in the project. The load carrying capacity will be a few kgs. The battery I've sized at this stage is around 2kgs and should allow it... |
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Drones | 8 years 4 months ago | |
http://www.esri.com/products/drone2map#beta ESRI is developing the means of putting UAV imagery into ArcGIS. Sign up to keep... |
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Drones | 8 years 5 months ago | |
These two fully funded PhD positions may be of interest to the community: Primate Conservation And UAV Technology:... |
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Drones | 8 years 6 months ago |
[ARCHIVED] Drones and the law webinar
5 October 2020 11:51am
Webinar: Drones for Change
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7 October 2020 12:00am
Webinar: Advances in Fisheries Electronic Monitoring
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21 September 2020 12:00am
Tech Tutors: How do I use a drone to capture radio-tracking data?
5 August 2020 8:22pm
6 August 2020 7:26pm
Hi Wildlabbers,
What a great episode and Q&A!! We had SO many questions for Debbie that we couldn't get to all of them during the stream. If you have follow-up questions about tracking wildlife with drones, be sure to ask them here and we'll pass them along to Debbie. You can also see all of the questions from the session here in our collaborative document, which also has resources and a log of the chat!
We'll be posting the full tutorial and Q&A video here tomorrow, so if you missed the episode, you'll be able to catch up soon.
Thanks to everyone who came to this episode, and we hope to see you again next week!
-Ellie
17 September 2020 12:27am
Hi all,
Firstly, I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended my Tech Tutors presentation last month. And secondly, thank you for your patience in allowing me to respond to your questions. If you have any further questions, please feel free to post them on the forum here or email me ([email protected]). I would love to hear from you!
Cheers,
Debbie
Tech Tutors Q&A:
Carlos: I have one single question today: is Debbie or someone using fully autonomous drones in their projects? No human control ever? Here, they are banned, even in non-populated areas.
Debbie: Our first research prototypes were autonomous (Cliff et al. 2015; 2018), however it had to be able to be controlled manually if needed to comply with flight regulations.
However, the autonomous nature of that prototype meant that it wasn’t able to be readily adapted for use on a diversity of drone platforms as more advanced systems became available, and also recognised that wildlife researcher’s primary need was for a tracking system in the air rather than a robotic tracking system. However, one day we hope to again be able to integrate our system into large-scale fully autonomous monitoring programs. With our current system, once you are provided with bearings to all tags within range you can begin to make decisions about where the next best place to go is to get the most effective intersecting bearing lines.
Cliff, O. Saunders, D. and Fitch, R. (2018) Robotic Ecology: Tracking Small Dynamic Animals with an Autonomous Aerial Vehicle. Science Robotics Vol. 3, Issue 23, eaat8409.
Cliff, O., Fitch, R., Sukkarieh, S., Saunders, D.L. and Heinsohn, R. (2015). Online localisation of radio-tagged wildlife with an autonomous aerial robot system. Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems 2015, Rome, Italy, July.
Sol Milne: Amazing work! Has this worked for small, below skin tracking tags?
Debbie: Our system can track any very-high frequency (VHF) radio-tag from any tag manufacturer globally. This includes VHF-tags that are designed to be inserted under the animal’s skin. We have tested Giant Armadillo implant tags previously and have even been able to detect them from when they were 3 metres underground in a burrow (although they are actually pretty big tags!). The effect of having an implanted tag is the same for both drone and manual tracking – with no whip antenna the detection distance is shorter but it can typically still be detected.
Julian Dale: Can you provide a cost for your system? We are developing a system for a longer endurance fixed wing aircraft VTOL (2-4hr endurance) to cover large areas and with full autonomy. I would be interested to chat more about a collaboration if you are interested?
Debbie: Absolutely interested Julian! We definitely have both a fixed wing VTOL and full autonomy on our roadmap – it’s just a matter of getting to it. Please do get in touch ([email protected]) to discuss further and we can also give you some specific pricing for your project needs.
Julian Dale: Would it be possible to combine two antenna and SDR's to cover a wider swath on a fixed wing?
Debbie: This certainly may be possible, but it would need to be thoroughly tested with both the pros & cons considered, such as extra complexity in the code, extra hardware housing and integration etc.
Paul: Q about RF (RT?)- have you looked into using Bluetooth Low Energy or LoRa instead of VHF? Bluetooth or Lora Gateway on the drone would look for signals, vast amount lighter - but not sure about range, hence my question, thank you all the same.
Debbie: When developing our system we decided that rather than trying to invent a new type of miniature tag which has it’s own inherent challenges, we wanted to develop a better way to detect and track VHF tags that are already used all around the world. Having said this, we have explored various alternatives in terms of communications and data transfer such as LoRa but found our setup to perform more reliably and to have much greater communication ranges (tested for real time data feeds out to 2.5km currently).
Arky: Wonder if this system could be adapted for fixed wing drones / Vertical take-off and land (VTOL) systems that could be useful in some use-cases.
Debbie: Yes, it can be. We are currently in the process of exploring the best way for our system to be adapted onto a fixed-wing drone platform and it is a key part of our development roadmap. We can see many advantages and applications for using fixed-wing drones – especially as they are typically able to search much larger areas!
Rob: Hi Debbie, this system is amazing! I am so with Steph (what I could've done with this 10 or 15 years ago)! I was wondering, can your system work with SensorGnome-style coded VHF tags?
Debbie: The key issue with tracking coded tags using our system is that they are all on the same frequency. Our system works by finding the maximum signal for each unique frequency so having lots of tags in all different directions but with the same frequency wouldn’t work. Having said this, I have wondered whether we would be able to ramp up the interrogation of coded tag signals, detect them all and decode them on the fly so that they can be located. But I’m sure my tech team would roll their eyes at me over that one since I am sure it would quite challenging to do. But if you have any good ideas on how this may be achieved we’d be happy to give it a shot!
Sophie: Provided an Argos goniometer on board the drone, you could detect the animal equipped with an Argos tag as well?
Debbie: I’m not sure exactly what signals the goniometer is detecting, however if the Argos tag (or any other tag) includes a standard VHF radio signal as a back up option in case the tag fails then we can track it with our system regardless of who the tag manufacturer is. This may not work if they don’t use VHF radio-signals.
Sophie: Do you have a system to recover the drone in case of loss?
Debbie: If you wanted to put a radio-tag on your drone as well as on your animals, then our system could certainly track them both as long as they are within the detection range of the tag. The detection range varies depending on size, with small tags having shorter detection distances.
Pascal: Have you tried/considered using an automatic direction finder system (which can 'virtually rotate' its beam direction using a phased array of multiple antennas)? And/or continuously recording the received radio signal for (additional) later offline analysis?
Debbie: Yes indeed, we have considered and explored both of these options. The use of a phase array creates many interesting hardware and software challenges when considering a lightweight, robust system that can be used on a drone, and although there could certainly be benefits in such a system we found that the costs generally outweighed the benefits. In terms of collecting data and processing it later, this is currently possible as well as real time data collection. However one of the key advantages of our current system is that you are not “flying blind” since you can see exactly what signals you are/aren’t picking up and their directions which means that your data collection is much more targeted and effective.
Melissa: How does the drone work in high wind? What is the max wind speed you can fly it in? Also, what was the updated the flight time after your initial troubleshooting (if it got better than 10 minutes)?
Debbie: The system can work in high wind but the error margins around estimated locations will be larger due to the buffeting effect of the wind on the magnetometer which provides the bearings. If all you want to see is that you can detect your animals wind wouldn’t matter too much, but if you are aiming to get accurate locations you will find they will have larger errors than if you flew in calmer conditions. If it is really windy and the drone is working really hard to maintain it’s location you will also notice that it can tilt quite a lot and so in this case the antenna may be pointing at the sky instead of across the landscape and so would be less likely to detect tags. It’s always a good idea to fly within the recommended wind speed rating of your drone (from memory the DJI Matrice 210 recommended max wind speed is 10 m/s.
Julian: Can you tune your system to cope with radio interference from different aircraft? [ STEPH: is this duke julian? If so - we might hold this question]
Debbie: Not exactly sure what interference from different aircraft you are referring to sorry, but dealing with radio-interference is certainly one of the greatest challenges when listening for low powered tags in our noisy radio world! However, we do have a nice combination of hardware and software that enable us to eliminate or manage a range of different potential interferers both within and outside of the target frequency bands.
Liam: You mentioned earlier that you were interested in the migration routes of the parrots - have you tested the use of your system for migration pathways in any other species? And how do you work with the battery limitations?
Debbie: We haven’t had the opportunity to use our system to understand the full migratory pathways of swift parrots yet since we are currently unable to use long-term attachments on this species so we have had to focus on tracking them within their winter range instead – but we’re super keen to get there one day! We haven’t tested it along migration pathways as such, but rather we have tracked other migratory species within their winter foraging range. Would be great fun to try tracking along an entire migratory path though!
Miguel: Drones are usually very noisy. Don't animals run away when they hear the drone? Or does it fly high enough that it doesn't disturb the animals? How high can it fly while being able to get the data?
Debbie: Radio-tracking from a drone is less disruptive to most species compared to manually radio-tracking on foot, or using other drone sensors like visual or thermal cameras. This is because our system doesn’t require you to fly directly above or in close proximity of the animals you are tracking in order to get their location. Our system detects signals from distance, determines bearings and then triangulates the animal’s location. Filghts are generally limited to below 120m however we typically fly at around 40m or so depending on the height of the vegetation (at least this is the specific regulation height in Australia).
Isla Duporge: Thanks Ellie, I was just wondering how many have been made, cost of hiring and whether there is the intention to be able to sell them to researchers.
Debbie: So far we have made 30 of these systems and we are happy to provide you with specific costing details for your project if you would like to get in touch ([email protected] ). They are only available for hire, not to buy, but unlike most equipment hire arrangements, we provide full technical support for you and your team should you need any help or guidance. Also, given the tech is advancing all the time, if you have a long term project we will upgrade your system each year with the latest model!
Phoebe Griffith: Similar question to above, I was wondering if they might be possible to purchase (rather than hire) for long term tracking projects (we track animals for 2+ years), and if so what the approx costs are?
Debbie:
Same response as above:
We are happy to provide you with specific costing details for your project if you would like to get in touch ([email protected] ). They are only available for hire, not to buy, but unlike most equipment hire arrangements, we provide full technical support for you and your team should you need any help or guidance. Also, given the tech is advancing all the time, if you have a long term project we will upgrade your system each year with the latest model!
Rob: Have you had a chance to look at using tags/untagged animals for abundance (e.g. koalas) or survival studies, as your drones can cover so much area
Debbie: Yes, so we are currently in the process of using both thermal and radio-tracking drone technology to find both tagged and untagged animals at the same site. We recognise that not all animals can be tagged and have found that thermal technology can help fill that gap. The great thing about drones is that they are capable of carrying multiple sensors, allowing you to collect a diverse range of data.
Sean: Are you using an "off the shelf" flight platform or is it bespoke?
Debbie: Our system is able to be mounted onto off-the-shelf drone platforms that can carry a 1kg payload, such as the DJI Matrice 210 and similar models.
Carly: Also, this might be a stupid question, but can these things go up at night? E.g. tracking nocturnal animals.
Debbie: No such thing as a stupid question! They are all good! Drones can certainly be flown at night to track nocturnal animals. However, it should be noted that in most places, you’ll need to be a licensed drone pilot and have special authorisation to fly at night. We recommend that you check your local area’s drone rules and regulations for more information on this before you fly.
Tech Tutors: Review Session
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3 September 2020 12:00am
Sustainable Fishing Challenges: Fishing Gear Innovations
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19 August 2020 12:00am
Tracking Wild Reptiles, Amphibians, And Their Temperatures
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31 July 2020 12:00am
15 September 2023 11:02pm
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How do I use a drone to capture radio-tracking data?
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Rural Research residency in drone sowing and wild seeds in Spain
23 July 2020 1:21pm
Kākāpō Dreaming: A Wildlife Drones Adventure
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8 July 2020 12:00am
Seeking feedback: draft principles for responsible use of conservation surveillance technology
9 June 2020 6:28pm
WILDLABS Tech Tutors: Season One
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19 May 2020 12:00am
Using UAVs to Assess carbon in Mangroves
13 May 2020 1:06pm
Training Course: Quantitative Analysis of Marine & Coastal Drone Data
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29 April 2020 12:00am
Connecting to MBARI's Deep-Sea Instruments
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31 March 2020 12:00am
WILDLABS Community Call Recording: Rainforest X-PRIZE
30 March 2020 12:00am
Virtual Field Trip: Conservation Technology with Shah Selbe
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24 March 2020 12:00am
Able to Provide Movement Detection Software For Live Feed Video
16 January 2020 5:15am
11 March 2020 3:22am
Hi Ruth,
Thanks for your reply and the suggestion.
I contacted air shepherd and a few similar groups a few moths ago and they were all saying they are not interested due to the difficult drone regulations. Hopefully the regulations are not as arduous in Zimbabwe?
Please don't hesitate to ask if there is any technical information or assistance that I can provide to help with your project,
Jessi Hargrave
15 March 2020 5:15pm
Hi Jessi,
I can check on the regulations for the specific area that is planned for a wildlife sanctuary in Zimbabwe. What altitude does the drone need to operate in? Does it require communications with any ground-based facility?
Ruth
15 March 2020 11:40pm
Hi Ruth,
Thanks for your email.
Essentially the software is only an advantage if the drones are being flown at altitudes that provide a wide area and less visible detail (i.e. if the operator flies at 3000ft (instead of 1000ft) it will cover 9x the area and see very small detail (which the software can pick up but the human eye may miss). In addition the software needs video feed from a computer (it sort of overlays the video) so it is only useful for drones that are able to relay decent quality video feed to a ground control station where an operator is viewing it live.
I have been advised that the drones that this is most useful for are likely to be at least 5kg (ie not the small toy ones that give video to a tablet).
I hope that helps? Please feel free to ask anything else and I will see what I can find out,
Jessi
#Tech4Wildlife 2020 Photo Challenge In Review
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4 March 2020 12:00am
Call for Nominations: Tusk Conservation Awards
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3 March 2020 12:00am
Hawai'i Conservation Conference
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28 February 2020 12:00am
New Conservation Dataset with Thermal Infrared Images from Drones
26 February 2020 6:48pm
Drone Reforestation Tech for everyone
24 February 2020 12:04pm
Hacking Climate Change - Coaction on Climate Crisis
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20 February 2020 12:00am
Habitat Restoration in the Pennines, UK
30 January 2020 8:48am
LIDAR USA sensor
14 January 2020 12:38pm
Thermal imaging, drones, and loggerhead sea turtles: a #tech4wildlife case study using FLIR's new Duo Pro R camera
21 September 2018 3:21pm
24 December 2019 6:42am
Rob thanks for the offer, sorry about delay in reply work has been in way. I have spoken to our coordinator here and we would be interested in borrowing flair 640 to see if it helps locate. Let me know he best way to get in touch.
2 January 2020 5:10pm
Hi thermal people,
Just a quick heads up, but I am exploring some of Seek Thermal's (ex FLIR engineers I believe) new Mosaic Core modules by having a play with their developer's kit. I'll report back once I receive the equipment, but their intention is to release 320 x 240 cameras at very low cost. Note - they won't sell them individually, so a reseller will be necessary, but if they are cost effective at this resolution it could prove excellent for wildlife conservation use.
https://www.thermal.com/uploads/1/0/1/3/101388544/mosaic_core_specification_sheet.pdf
Cheers,
Alasdair
2 January 2020 6:12pm
Cheers Al, and looking forward to hearing more about them. I am, as we speak, editing some thermal videos of wallaby behaviour near roads, specifically in relation to devices that activate lights and sounds when a car is approaching (activated by vehicle headlights at night). Used a Flir 640R, but I reckon half that resolution would still be fine. Unfortunately, not much support for the devices themselves working as a deterrent/warning (although I have some ideas on how they could with additional stimuli), but the thermal camera works great for non-invasive observations!
Image Processing Advice
22 October 2018 11:53am
13 November 2018 12:09pm
I just thought I would mention that i've been talking to Sol about his issue and also around multispectral and thermal sensors. No solution as yet to the issue but Sol will share some of his data with us so we can take a look.
28 November 2019 1:45am
Just wanted to mention I found a solution to my georeferencing issue. You can use the 'geosphere' package in R to identify the coordinates of specific coordinates in each image, based on the position of the central coordinate, bearing and distance to target pixel.
Feel free to drop me a line if you want a hand doing this!
28 November 2019 8:53am
Really useful to know about that package, thanks
[ARCHIVE] Virtual Meetup Discussion: Drones
19 November 2019 3:04pm
[ARCHIVE] WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Invitation: Drones
18 November 2019 4:35pm
8 October 2020 6:30pm
Very cool, thanks for sharing, Adrian! We'll put this up on Twitter as well.