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
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
A technologist and a conservationist
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Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
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I'm a Data Scientist at Western EcoSystems Technology. I am interested in AI processing and statistical modeling of acoustic data and camera trap and drone imagery.
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Dzanga-Ndoki national park biodiversity monitoring
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Hi! I am Frida Ruiz, a current Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student very interested in habitat restoration & conservation. I am excited to connect with others and learn about technology applications within applied ecology & potential research opportunities
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I am ecologist working in African conservation areas who loves wildlife & wild landscapes. I increasingly recognize that conservation is about people, especially those living in & around protected areas. Finding ways to benefit marginalized people is my passion.
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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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November 2023
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31 Products
Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi!I would take a look at Although developed for camera trap imagery, it is by no means restricted to such.Cheers,Lars |
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Camera Traps, Community Base, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS, Software and Mobile Apps | 6 months 3 weeks ago | |
In what ways can drones contribute to linking individuals, communities, and small-scale producers in rural areas, facilitating the support... |
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Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 months ago | |
@dmorris joined Variety Hour to give us 'a bunch of lightning talks inside a lightning talk'. Check out the recording to get a whirlwind... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 months ago | |
@caseyslaught is a Full-stack engineer with Virunga National Park, and he's built a handy tool to host, visualize, and... |
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Drones | 8 months ago | |
Stefano Puliti joined Variety Hour to share his work using 3D photogrammetric data from UAVs for pre- and post-harvest inventory of forest... |
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Climate Change, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS | 10 months 1 week ago | |
During Andrew's talk, @dmorris put out a call in the chat that might be relevant to folks catching up on the video, so I'll drop it here too: Re: Andrew's fish work... part... |
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AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Drones, Marine Conservation | 1 year 1 month ago | |
Carly, that would be great! Thanks! I work with soundscapes and love the work of Rainforest Connection! I'll send you an email (@CUNY) to coordinate! |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Hi Donya! You might check out the Conservation Tech Directory to see what projects/organizations/tools best align with your interests and skills. |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Drones | 1 year 2 months ago | |
Do you have a wild animal tracking story that involves adventure or misadventure? Share it with us! From going around in circles for hours... |
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Biologging, Citizen Science, Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS | 1 year 2 months ago | |
GeoNadir and OpenDroneMap might be of interest for drones?The Conservation Tech Directory might have some additional projects/tools of note. |
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Data management and processing tools, Drones | 1 year 3 months ago | |
Following up here... a few of us huddled virtually and assembled standardized metadata, standardized sample code, and sample annotated images for all the datasets on that list.... |
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Drones | 1 year 4 months ago | |
Hi Jeremy, With a quick search I've found the paper linked below. It looks like equipments such as Livox MID are sufficient for plot-level analyses, but not for individual... |
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Drones, Earth Observation 101 Community, Emerging Tech, Remote Sensing & GIS, Sensors | 1 year 4 months ago |
WILDLABS Virtual Meetup Recording: Drones
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9 November 2019 12:00am
How do you weigh a live whale?
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9 October 2019 12:00am
Aerial Seeding with drones: reforestation Workshop in Brazil next November
2 September 2019 4:51pm
Tips to create a reforestation platform.
25 August 2019 11:37pm
[ARCHIVE] Promises and Pitfalls of Conservation Drones webinar (June 6)
3 June 2019 11:37am
22 August 2019 5:24pm
It is indeed. You can watch it here:
https://consbio.org/products/webinars/scgis-webinar-promises-and-pitfalls-conservation-drones
I'll also see if we can add it to our resources area for ease of access. Leave it with me.
Workshop: Drones in the Coastal Zone
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13 August 2019 12:00am
From the Field: Melissa Schiele
10 June 2019 12:00am
SALE: WingCopter HeavyLift drone, LiDAR, Multispektral camera, NextVision NightHawk
5 June 2019 10:20am
Circular Polarising Filters for the Mavic 2 Pro
29 April 2019 2:36pm
8 May 2019 7:23pm
I like the stuff Polar Pro puts out. I think they are some of the best you can get and it is what I use.
4 June 2019 3:31pm
Thank you for the tip! Shall try and pick up a set soon.
Drone flight in Indonesia
16 April 2019 12:08pm
17 April 2019 4:14pm
Hi Sophie,
The best thing would be to get in contact with the Department of Civil Aviation in the Indonesian state you're working in. You're right that you can fly without a permit for at low altitude in most places, but there may be diferent restrictions if the drone is used for research purposes so its worth checking. I received a license for drone work in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) and they mainly wanted to know the drone specs, activities, flight coordinates, dates and if possible, times. The only restriction they gave us was to fly below 300 m,
There is usually a lot of back and forth between departments about who is ultimately responsible but they should be able to get it processed, as there are groups in Kalimantan using drones pretty regularly. Please let me know if you have any issues or need any other info.
Best wishes,
Sol
18 April 2019 5:07pm
Thanks so much Sol! How long did it take you to get permission to fly? And were there any costs associated with getting the permit?
4 June 2019 1:33pm
Hi Sophie,
Sorry- I only just saw your reply!
It took about 3 months to get it through the department of civil aviation, but this doesn't mean much, because the Indonesian system may be pretty different. It cost 250RM (£50) for each drone.
Cheers,
Sol
Canopy height mapping with drones
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31 May 2019 12:00am
Technology for Wildlife and the Looming Spectre of E-Waste
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3 May 2019 12:00am
WILDLABS Virtual Meetup: Low Cost, Open-Source Solutions
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18 March 2019 12:00am
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge: Our Favourites from 2019
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3 March 2019 12:00am
Using Swiss AI and Drones to Count African Wildlife
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18 February 2019 12:00am
Getting up close and personal with Antarctica's orcas
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4 February 2019 12:00am
Drones with thermal imaging
21 January 2019 10:34am
Viral bear video shows how drones threaten wildlife – and what to do about it
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22 November 2018 12:00am
Infrared filters for drone cameras
3 August 2017 11:17am
22 August 2017 3:09am
Although not for NDVI but worth a mention for anyone looking at converting a camera into IR only.
I have had sucess using a DIY filter made out of blank processed camera film from a disposable camera. So long as you can still find somewhere to process the film (or do it yourself) you just cut the processed film (negatives) and replace the digital cameras IR filter (placed over the cameras sensor). This will simply turn the camera into an IR camera only so won't fit your requirement for NDVI but thought that it is worth posting if others are looking at converting a camera or Go-Pro into an IR camera.
23 May 2018 9:41am
Hi Thom,
Did you have any luck with the DIY sensor?
Sam
10 November 2018 11:40am
If you need a piece of exposed (black) film then please get in touch. I still take "real" slides and have a few black frames at start and end of each roll of film.
Drones, Orangutans, and Strangler Figs in Malaysian Borneo
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22 October 2018 12:00am
Multispectral Cameras
27 September 2018 2:38pm
Underwater Robot Trained to Kill Coral-Destroying Reef Starfish
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18 September 2018 12:00am
Thermal imaging, drones, and sea turtles: a case study using FLIR’s new Duo Pro R camera
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23 August 2018 12:00am
Drone Applications in Water Quality Research?
14 March 2018 4:42pm
16 March 2018 5:49am
Hi Ned,
Thank you so much for your response!
I absolutely agree- going out and testing flights over water at different angles and times of the day would be best. I'll look into a polarizing filter. I have spoken with some colleagues who recommend flying between noon and 3pm, and also that a cloudy day with diffused light can actually be quite helpful to avoid glint. I will look into the oil spill mapping - sounds very interesting. I've also heard that drones are sometimes restricted from oil spill regions due to risks of battery-caused fires (if the drones fall into the water).
Ved! Fantastic idea. I used to work with him down at Ames, so I will certainly reach out. Thank you for the reminder!
Cheers,
Chippie
6 June 2018 6:48pm
Hi CHippie - I am wondering how your thoughts are progressing on this topic? Please let us know an update.
Thanks
Michael
9 June 2018 12:10am
Hi Michael!
Thanks so much for following up. I have yet to really get my feet wet with drones & algal blooms (my water quality issue of interest at the moment), but what I gathered from my literature review is that hyperspectral cameras are a much more precise option than multispectral cameras for algal identification. I'm hoping to try out a red-edge camera to see if there is anything spectrally interesting, as I do not currently have access to a hyperspectral camera. For the time being, I am hoping to play with a MicaSense camera over wet habitat and see if anything can be observed. I'll keep you posted if I find anything of interest!
Thanks,
Chippie
From drone swarms to tree batteries, new tech is revolutionising ecology and conservation
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9 May 2018 12:00am
Tethered UAVs
14 March 2018 4:29pm
27 April 2018 11:46pm
Thanks - I did look into blimps but the helium problem is a big one for remote work. I do have a couple UAVs but the area I work is tricky (airport, waterdrome, and helicopter landing with occasional ships that carry helicopters). my hope was for a tethered solution that could run for longer than the 20min battery life of a drone. thanks for the info.
27 April 2018 11:53pm
thanks I adnt thought of kites - I will have to test one in the field this year. I imagined one of the advantages of a tethered UAV is that I can parasitize all the camera elements (gimble stabilization, pan/tilt/zoom, and real time viewing of the imagery). Maybe I could just secure a cheap UAV under a kite... I wonder how I choose the correct kite size.
28 April 2018 5:13pm
hi Stephen,
Kites have gimbals too (ranging from simple strings to metal rigs) and you can connect to a camera much like a drone. In my case I have a gimbal hanging on a string, and to connect to my camera I get live connection and can change settings with the GoPro app! this website has lots of info - size of the kite depends on payload (some people fly SLRs!) and wind.
Www.kapshop.com
Eddy Expedition Log: Characterizing Eddies
23 April 2018 12:00am
Eddy Expedition Log: Chasing Eddies
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10 April 2018 12:00am
Eddy Expedition Log: Setting Off to Explore Eddies
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3 April 2018 12:00am
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge 2018: Our Top 10
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3 March 2018 12:00am
22 August 2019 5:14pm
Is the webinar recorded and uploaded somewhere?