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
- @LindyClydeKnowles
- | he/him
![WILDLABS Alumni](/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/2024-02/WILDLABS%20Alumni_0.png?itok=Vw5ofmFP)
- 0 Resources
- 6 Discussions
- 6 Groups
Certified Associate Wildlife Biologist
M.S. Student
![Commenter level 1](/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/2024-02/Commenter%201_0.png?itok=Qhj_yHVF)
![Conversation starter level 1](/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/2024-02/Conversation%20starter%201_0.png?itok=XEfKth_h)
![Poster level 1](/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/2024-02/Poster%201_4.png?itok=Tpfys5CO)
- 2 Resources
- 19 Discussions
- 7 Groups
I'm a wildlife ecologist with interests in a range of technology.
![Commenter level 1](/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/2024-02/Commenter%201_0.png?itok=Qhj_yHVF)
- 0 Resources
- 21 Discussions
- 5 Groups
Passionate advocate for nature and experienced communicator, looking to explore opportunities to leverage technology in wildlife and marine conservation
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 7 Groups
Technologist and Visual storyteller focusing on social, conservations issues.
![Commenter level 1](/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/2024-02/Commenter%201_0.png?itok=Qhj_yHVF)
![Poster level 1](/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/2024-02/Poster%201_4.png?itok=Tpfys5CO)
- 0 Resources
- 32 Discussions
- 16 Groups
- @ATM
- | HE
I studied Wildlife and Ecotourism Management in University of Ìbàdàn, Nigeria, I'm a front-end developer. I am interested in conservation technology
- 0 Resources
- 5 Discussions
- 11 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 1 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 16 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
Research coordinator Transfrontier Africa, PhD student STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY
- 0 Resources
- 5 Discussions
- 2 Groups
Partner in Conservation at WWF
![Commenter level 1](/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/2024-02/Commenter%201_0.png?itok=Qhj_yHVF)
- 0 Resources
- 17 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @aljmichel
- | she/her
PhD student at UC Davis studying gorilla communication & movement
- 0 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 6 Groups
With Arctic sea ice disappearing, can advanced sensor technologies provide insights into an ecosystem on the brink?
30 November 2017
It’s one thing to hear that a project is working, it’s another thing entirely to see the data brought to life. Using submersible and aerial drones, as well as scientists with snorkels and digital cameras, The Nature...
4 October 2017
Earlier this year, WILDLABS community member Shashank Srinivasan was involved in an operation to capture the Pilibhit man-eater. In this account, he shares how they successfully managed to tranquilize and capture the...
10 August 2017
In this From the Field interview, we speak to Eric Becker, a conservation technology engineer at the World Wildlife Fund US. He talks about his work in technology design and the key challenges he's experienced...
22 May 2017
Are you ready for this year's #Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge? In anticipation, we're counting down our ten favourite entries from last year. Do you think you can top these?
1 March 2017
The Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) is a training and capacity building programme that targets individuals from developing countries who are early in their conservation career and demonstrate leadership...
21 November 2016
Do you work on conserving Neotropical migratory birds? Do you need funding? Why not apply for a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act's grant program? The...
8 November 2016
As a visiting research scholar with UNODC, Isla Duporge asked wildlife crime experts about their experiences using remote sensing technologies to combat illicit wildlife and forest activities. In this article, Isla...
7 November 2016
Article
Drones are being explored for a spectrum of applications in conservation that include mapping, biodiversity inventories, antipoaching patrols, wildlife tracking and fire monitoring. However, questions remain about...
8 July 2016
A team of researchers is using UAVs to photograph tropical forest canopy with the aim of developing low-cost methods for measuring forest quality and directing restoration management. In this case study for the Drones...
27 April 2016
By flying through a whale's spray, a SnotBot can collect samples of mucus and DNA which researchers are hoping will offer insights into whales' stress levels. After a successful Kickstart campaign, Ocean Alliance has...
25 February 2016
We are living in the midst of a pretty exciting era. Never before has humanity been more educated, more connected, more enabled, or more empowered than we are today. There are many reasons to be optimistic about the...
17 February 2016
September 2024
event
November 2023
event
October 2023
31 Products
Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
---|---|---|---|---|
>>>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... |
|
Drones | 2 years 7 months ago | |
Drone program manager at Island Conservation - https://www.islandconservation.org/drone-program-coordinator/ Senior Specialist, Flight... |
|
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... |
|
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... |
|
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... |
+4
|
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... |
|
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,... |
|
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... |
|
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 ... |
|
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... |
|
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,... |
|
Drones | 3 years 9 months ago | |
Very cool, thanks for sharing, Adrian! We'll put this up on Twitter as well. |
|
Drones | 3 years 10 months ago |
Travelling with a drone/UK regulations
22 September 2016 4:16pm
22 September 2016 6:27pm
Excellent resource, thanks @Lot!
16 October 2016 6:10pm
Hi all,
First of all, sorry for this delayed response! Thanks for the info, unfortunately i did not have enough time to inform my friend, but now we know for the next time! ;)
Regards
This is why drones should be used in natural parks
14 October 2016 4:22pm
DJI Mavic Pro vs. GoPro Karma
27 September 2016 5:10pm
14 October 2016 4:18pm
I will not consider karma for conservation, the 3DR Solo instead is much more smart and open source. Ready for more tasks than just a flying camera.
Mavic of course is very small and very useful for walking on nature.
Drone teaching/research license
7 September 2016 5:47pm
5 October 2016 7:30pm
Hi all,
I'm thinking about going for my license. In doing so, I'll do a writeup of my experiences for you all so that way those of you in the United States who are interested in using drones have something to reference when going to take the exam.
(ARCHIVED) PHD position available in using drones for mapping
20 September 2016 4:34pm
21 September 2016 2:39pm
@Lenny Just saw your profile on the members section. You might be interested in this.
22 September 2016 9:49am
The application was 20th September though?
22 September 2016 5:50pm
Ups, it's true :(
I hope that you can try to apply anyway.
Regards
(ARCHIVED) Opportunity to work with elephants and drones in Thailand
22 September 2016 5:39pm
New review: Opportunities and challenges of drones for ecology
22 June 2016 12:32pm
21 August 2016 7:04pm
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 drones become more ubiquitous it is possible that poachers also adopt the technology.
2) Even if poachers don't adopt the technology, in some high value poaching scenarios they may be able to eavesdrop on the drone communication. Eventually some kind of security may be necessary to protect the information collected by the drones.
Overall, I think drone technology is developing at a rapid pace and will prove to be very helpful in conservation.
Analytical report on drones in conservation value.
10 December 2015 9:35pm
15 August 2016 11:31am
For anyone interested in an overview of how drones are being deployed for conservation, this piece by Serge Wich (of ConservationDrones.org) provides a comprehensive run through the possibilities.
Can Drones Live up to the Hype?
![](/sites/default/files/paul_glover-kapfer-.jpg)
8 July 2016 12:00am
April Meetup: Can UAVs be used to measure forest quality?
24 May 2016 2:06pm
Great article talking about applying drones to scientific research
13 April 2016 6:30pm
3 May 2016 9:16am
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 of endeavors, often having direct or indirect implications for natural resource management. Using drones to improve our ability to target/hunt species of concern seems at once both a natural progression and something new with a slightly ominous overtone. This strikes me as one of those moments where we might want to pause and take stock of what is going on with this technology and where it might go in the not too distant future.
Should we ignore this development? Work to restrict the use of drones for such activities? Support this? Regardless of where we might come down on this question, I can't help but fell that this notion of drone fishing certainly seems to have the sense of "crossing the Rubicon" somehow.
http://aarr.piratelab.org/news/drone-fishing/
Can UAVs be Used to Measure Forest Quality?
![](/sites/default/files/tomswinfield3-.jpg)
27 April 2016 12:00am
What to you is the biggest small problem with using UAVs in the field?
24 February 2016 7:47pm
5 April 2016 5:17pm
Wait, can you implement the range extenders in DJI systems? Is it costly in order to do so?
5 April 2016 5:58pm
jprobert,
Due to the proprietary nature of DJI, no the antenna tracker listed above cannot be added easily. Some engineering would need to go into hacking DJI. I'm not sure if you can get the telemetry data from DJI's app or ground control station. If so, one could parse the telemetry data and feed the GPS location into the open source tracker. You could also add another radio on board which transmits the GPS from the UAV. However, this is not the most efficient way and will cost some flight time for the added weight and power consumption.
Without hacking DJI or doing some digging, you could replace the antennas on the hand controller and UAV with higher gain antennas. This could improve range, but would limit the directions you could fly(directional antenna).
I will look into data provided by DJI and see what it possible.
26 April 2016 9:34am
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 control systems for dirigibles though I would also suggest that the best place to start is Ardupilot.
Automated Forest Restoration with Drones
10 March 2016 4:59pm
13 April 2016 10:56am
Hi Lot, great to see you here too.
Collecting Your Opinions about Drones
11 April 2016 6:52pm
12 April 2016 9:26am
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 survey here, as I (for one) will be quite interested to see what comes back.
Cheers,
Steph
Solar powered drone for conservation
16 March 2016 4:17pm
26 March 2016 12:03pm
Hey Gregg,
The project looks cool!
Just wondering how much you envisage the load carrying capacity of the drone to be? So being able to carry cameras, GPS, etc.
Also, do you see the price coming down later? $5000 sounds quite steep...
And finally, have you thought about creating it as an open source project? Since all the perks at this points are mostly symbolic, this way people would be more compelled to contribute.
Have a nice day,
Daniel
28 March 2016 12:27pm
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 to fly over night, but if this storage is increased in future it will impact the other loads. It is a tricky trade-off between flight time and capability.
I'm hoping to include both visual and thermal cameras on a gimbal but they will need to be miniature versions (adds to cost). The drone will definitely include GPS/autopilot and I'm also hoping to include onboard image processing in future so the drone can send an alarm when it notices something out of place. The video feed will also need to be encrypted so that poachers cannot use the drone as their own scouting vehicle.
The price tag of $5000 is for the first few prototypes and will come down with mass production and buying in bulk. I don't see it dropping much below $3000-4000 at current equipment prices though. For instance, the solar PV cells and charge circuit alone will cost around $1000 and the cost of even the cheap uncooled microbolometer therml imagers is over $1000. This isn't an average consumer drone but I've tried to keep the costs down as much as possible so it's feasible. I've also considered offering a stripped down drone of just the charging circuit and airframe so that people can add their own equipment and autopilot etc.
In terms of the perks, I tried to model this campaign after other campaigns that had a product already, which has been a mistake. The build diary included in some of the perks was my attempt at making it open source. I am considering reworking all the perks as it is unlikely to get any funding at this stage.
Thanks for the valuable feedback. Please let me know if you have any other questions or comments.
Cheers,
Gregg
Integrating UAV imagery into ArcGIS
1 March 2016 2:34pm
SnotBots: Can drones transform whale conservation?
25 February 2016 12:00am
Bringing Conservation Technology to Life
![](/sites/default/files/shah_selbe_2-.jpg)
17 February 2016 12:00am
PhD Positions: UAVs and Wild Animal Tracking Systems
2 February 2016 10:13pm
DJI and Ford launch a competition with $100,000 prize
12 January 2016 2:59pm
Achieving Moonshots: Advancing Humankind and Preserving Nature
22 December 2015 12:00am
Cheap Space, DIY Imaging and Big Data
21 December 2015 12:00am
Drones as elephant deterrent (herding device)
24 November 2015 6:32pm
17 December 2015 6:39pm
Hi Dave,
I believe with any DJI drones you can plot out the course of a drone and let it fly along the route with you controling the speed and height of the drone. The limitation is that it has to eb within a mile of the pilot.
Regards,
John
17 December 2015 6:43pm
True, but ideal the navigation system would need to be more interactive to be able to respond to the elephant movements in real-time.
The Social Lives of Conservation Technologies and Why They Matter
![](/sites/default/files/chris_sandbrook-.jpg)
2 November 2015 12:00am
22 September 2016 5:44pm
Hi All,
For a full list of countries and drone regulations the most up-to-date site is the wiki of uaviators:
http://wiki.uaviators.org/doku.php
Regards