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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Neuroscientist & engineer transitioning to conservation tech. I have experience working with large imaging datasets, pose estimation and positional tracking, and machine learning. Looking to get involved with GIS, remote sensing, and AI for conservation.
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Research coordinator Transfrontier Africa, PhD student STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY
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Partner in Conservation at WWF
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- @aljmichel
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PhD student at UC Davis studying gorilla communication & movement
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Graduate Research Assistant at SDSU, Conservation officer for Department of Forest and Park Services, Bhutan. Works on carnivores, applied quantitative ecologist
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Wildlife conservationist
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Data has been my passion and i enjoy working with data while bringing value to the business. Data engineer with 7+ years of experience Eager to support with expert analytical skills to advance the companys business operations and strategic initiative.
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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
As drone usage continues to grow within the conservation tech community, driven by improved performance, increased accessibility, and the wide range of data collection methods that can be served by drones, so do the...
19 October 2020
The miniaturisation of technology is rapidly opening up new possibilities for conservationists and environmental scientists in need of less invasive, easy to deploy solutions. University of Washington researchers have...
13 October 2020
Today, Sustainable Fishing Challenges group leader Daniel Steadman discusses how fishing gear itself could benefit from fresh technological innovations to prevent both environmental damage and damage to species and...
19 August 2020
In this case study from herpetologist Emily Taylor, we learn about the best methods and gear used to track snakes, lizards, and other reptiles and amphibians via radio-telemetry, and how these techniques have changed...
31 July 2020
What is it like to track endangered species using drones? In this blog post from Wildlife Drones, Dr. Debbie Saunders travels to New Zealand to track the Kākāpō, an extemely rare and elusive bird of which approximately...
8 July 2020
November 2023
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October 2023
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Thank you so much for your support. I am finding it really difficult to find the funding for the initial development. We need lots of engineering time to refine our detection and... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Wildlife Crime | 1 day 9 hours ago | |
Thank you for elaborating, @evebohnett ! And for the heads ups! |
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Camera Traps, Drones | 2 weeks ago | |
@PaulAllin Thanks for your valuable insights. Zenmuse H20N seems to be very powerful and useful in this case. However, I'm looking for a more affordable option for a self-funded... |
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Drones, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 3 months ago | |
We will be conducting in-person demos of our cutting-edge drone technology in the US this year! 🇺🇸 If you're interested in experiencing... |
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Biologging, Drones, Remote Sensing & GIS, Software and Mobile Apps | 3 months 1 week ago | |
Hi Danilo. you seem very passionate about this initiative which is a good start.It is an interesting coincidence that I am starting another project for the coral reefs in the... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Biologging, Camera Traps, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Community Base, Connectivity, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Sensors, Software and Mobile Apps, Wildlife Crime | 3 months 2 weeks ago | |
Forgot to mention this wildlife drone group - |
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Drones, eDNA & Genomics | 3 months 3 weeks ago | |
Hi, I have used a commercial company for drone work for my PhD and they were willing to give me a significant discount for research purposes. One thing to consider is that in SA a... |
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Drones, East Africa Community | 3 months 3 weeks ago | |
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 | 3 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 | 5 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 | 5 months 1 week 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 | 5 months 1 week ago | |
The link above does not seem to work but this does: https://wildlabs.net/sites/default/files/community/files/drones_for_gis_-_best_practice_v2.0.pdf |
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Drones | 5 months 3 weeks ago |
Technology for Wildlife and the Looming Spectre of E-Waste
3 May 2019 12:00am
WILDLABS Virtual Meetup: Low Cost, Open-Source Solutions
18 March 2019 12:00am
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge: Our Favourites from 2019
3 March 2019 12:00am
Using Swiss AI and Drones to Count African Wildlife
18 February 2019 12:00am
Getting up close and personal with Antarctica's orcas
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
22 November 2018 12:00am
Infrared filters for drone cameras
3 August 2017 11:17am
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
22 October 2018 12:00am
Multispectral Cameras
27 September 2018 2:38pm
Underwater Robot Trained to Kill Coral-Destroying Reef Starfish
18 September 2018 12:00am
Thermal imaging, drones, and sea turtles: a case study using FLIR’s new Duo Pro R camera
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
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
10 April 2018 12:00am
Eddy Expedition Log: Setting Off to Explore Eddies
3 April 2018 12:00am
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge 2018: Our Top 10
3 March 2018 12:00am
Online Course: Drones for Land Trust Monitoring and Management with Duke Marine Robotics & Remote Sensing Lab
25 January 2018 12:00am
Technology Empowered Conservation Lecture Series
18 January 2018 12:00am
"harvesting" camera traps, bioacoustic sensors via drones
3 November 2017 4:12pm
15 November 2017 7:05pm
NASA/NOAA did something like this with microbuoys for ocean temp sensing in the arctic - drone deploys (drops) micrbuoys and repeatedly returns to fly over fetching data over the following days and weeks
http://www.arcticobservingsummit.org/sites/arcticobservingsummit.org/files/Bradley_Microbuoys_AOS.pdf
Do you have a specific use case /location in mind?
If we could find research funding I'd be interested, I can fly &build UAS but this is also an interesting data management opportunity which I'm very interested in.
Perhaps you could mod the Ardupilot tracking antenna system if really needed but if you're flying in the vicinity with line of sight I bet you don't even need to aim the antenna
17 November 2017 2:31am
I've seen a couple of papers on similar capabilities, both with airborne drones as well as underwater drones, so there've been folks working on it. @emjay has a good point that the sensor nodes need to support this, which could be a bit tricky depending on your tolerance for battery life. What types of sensors are you thinking about supporting?
21 December 2017 3:48am
Hi Chris,
Your project sounds interesting! How's it coming along?
I'm based in the SF Bay Area. I don't have much drone experience, but it's something that I've been looking into recently. I'm currently working on a face recgnition system for brown bears with a bear researcher in BC, Canada. The goal is to identify bears on the data from camera traps to monitor populations and such. Currently the data is only collected a few times a season.
I agree with @emjay that the ground assets may be an issue. Do you have any thoughts on that front?
In any case, if you have some time in the coming weeks, I'd be happy to get together in the coming weeks to talk it over.
Ed
Drones: the pros and cons for community-based monitoring
10 December 2017 12:43pm
How The San Diego Zoo Is Using AI And Drones To Save Polar Bears
30 November 2017 12:00am
Kids, Drones & Science At The Water’s Edge
4 October 2017 12:00am
New paper on using drones in challenging environments
24 August 2017 9:04am
24 August 2017 4:57pm
Excellent - started reading this yesterday. This is a very timely and pertinent paper. Thanks for sharing.
Drone Tracker
23 August 2017 6:47am
24 August 2017 2:54am
Hi Lot,
Thank you for your input. Currently we are the end user instead of developer. That means, we are still using commercial drone like DJI series. However the link that you give absolutely useful for our upcoming innovation plans.
Since we still using commercial type quadcopter, I'm looking for stand alone tracker that work as seperate system from the drone. In other words, this tracker will not be affected should the drone system crash.
So far me and my team come across this device
http://www.dronesmadeeasy.com/Marco-Polo-Drone-Tracker-RF-Recovery-p/marco_polo_1.htm
Unfortunately, the radio signal frequency range so far not approved by Malaysian authority. So, I'm looking for other option.
Anyone in this forum have other option/ opinion?
Regards,
Mazidi
24 August 2017 6:51am
Hi Mazidi,
A couple of options;
- Marco Polo. http://eurekaproducts.com/rc-model-tracking-and-recovery/
I know of people who have relocated their machine using this device.
- Conventional VHF for wildlife tracking. old but solid technology.
Also have a look at commercial / open source devices used for model rockets.
regards
MJ
EDIT: I see that you have already identified Marco Polo.
24 August 2017 1:15pm
Hi Mazidi, all the systems that I recommended are separate systems with their own GPS, not connected to the drone.
Just the last one was the only finished product.
Good luck. Please tell us if you found something good and cheap!
A first-person account of the capture of a tiger in Pilibhit: Four elephants and a bulldozer, as seen from a drone
10 August 2017 12:00am
[ARCHIVE] Funding Opportunity: Leverage space technology for wildlife protection
6 July 2017 12:58pm
[ARCHIVE] OpenAerialMap
19 June 2017 10:54am
28 June 2017 5:27pm
For those who couldn't make it to the webinar, there's a recording at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0smOWFNRzuoLXpPSWREUnE2YzA/view. What do people think? Is this the future of aerial imagery data management?
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.