Conservation Drones Assist Environmentalists in Making Significant Advances in Wildlife Mapping

How conservation drones assist environmentalists in protecting endangered species

Did you know that if bees became extinct, humans would be able to cultivate just 28 crops, as the pollination of all other crops is dependent on bees? Did you know that certain species act as a buffer between people and hazardous viruses, and that their extinction has resulted in an increase in the prevalence of illnesses such as West Nile virus and Lyme disease?

According to a European Commission research, all species are interconnected in the web of life, and "even the most robust species will ultimately succumb to the synergies among extinction causes when catastrophic pressures push ecosystems to collapse."

Climate-related biodiversity loss has brought so many species dangerously close to extinction that scientists are having difficulty picking which ones to preserve and which to leave behind. However, we must decide, since climate change raises the likelihood of a 'extinction domino effect.'

To avert this worst-case scenario of 'co-extinction' and avoid becoming the generation that failed the world, our efforts to maintain biodiversity and ecosystems must be bolstered by the most advanced instruments available. Drones are one of these tools.

Conservation drones are now widely used in a variety of disciplines related to wildlife monitoring and management. Drones have become a popular alternative for conservation purposes since technological advancements have made them more portable, inexpensive, efficient, and weather-resistant. Consider some of the most inventive ways that drones are being used in animal conservation today...

Oceanography and drones: it's all in the Snot(Bot) SnotBot sprayed

Whales are critical to the health and stability of the world's seas — both in terms of life and death. These fascinating creatures work as marine ecosystem engineers, managing a diverse array of oceanic species as they live. And when they perish, their enormous carcasses settle to the bottom, providing vital nutrients to deep-sea life.

When you consider that these aquatic giants also contribute to the global cycle of natural resources such as carbon, nitrogen, and iron, it's easy to see why environmental experts worldwide are worried about the conservation and management of this endangered species.

Historically, researchers have depended on deadly scientific whaling to gain insight into the biology and behaviour of these spectacular creatures. However, today, all that is required to collect biological data from whales is a drone, Velcro, and a few Petri plates.

Ocean Alliance, a nonprofit group, has been doing drone whale research using a modified DJI Inspire 2 drone. The 'SnotBot' samples whales' blows as they ascend to the surface and exhale. These sticky, clear-colored blow samples contain whale DNA, microbiomes, tissue particles, stress and pregnancy hormones, and other viruses, all of which provide important information about the health of the huge creature.

Apart from being a non-lethal, non-invasive technique of doing maritime research, conservation drones like as SnotBot help democratise access to marine research. Due to the high cost of chartering sophisticated maritime boats and equipment, whale study has historically been confined to a select few. However, drones in oceanography are now making data collecting accessible, reproducible, and scalable to researchers worldwide.

You may read more about SnotBot straight from Ocean Alliance's CEO, Dr. Iain Kerr, here.

Spray Snotbot

Drone photography in conservation: Counting the lion's whiskers

Lions, being the dominant predator in their ecosystem – whether grasslands, scrub, or open forest – play a critical role in maintaining the food chain and regulating the herbivore population. However, with just about 20,000 African lions remaining in the wild, the king of animals has been classified as a 'vulnerable species' by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). And, with the present rate of hunting and habitat destruction, biologists believe that these incredible cats may become extinct entirely by 2050.

As a result, you can appreciate how critical it is for wildlife scientists to conduct reliable population counts of African lions. However, the work is equally difficult.

Historically, lion census methods have been quite inaccurate. Population estimates are reliant on track counts, audio lure surveys, or professional solicitation of lions - methods that are just insufficiently trustworthy for determining how prides fare over time.

A more promising survey strategy that has recently been tested involves photographing the lions in high-resolution and collecting their distinctive whisker print. Yes, just as no two humans have identical ridges and lines on their fingers, the quantity and placement of whiskers on a lion's face is similarly unique. And drones have simplified the process of collecting and recording these one-of-a-kind whisker spot patterns.

Spots on lions

How successful are drones for conservation photography specifically? A tiny drone, such as the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, can fly within a few metres of a lion and shoot a 48-megapixel high definition shot with 2x optical zoom without upsetting it. What about the background noise? As it turns out, once a lion becomes accustomed to a drone flying in the distance, it believes the machine to be a little, loud bird!

Drones safeguard wildlife: search and rescue for koalas

The World Wildlife Fund-Australia described the 2019-20 Australian bushfires as 'one of the biggest wildlife disasters in contemporary history,' and with cause. The continent's extraordinary fire season destroyed approximately 12.6 million hectares of land, killing or displacing around 3 billion animals. Over 61,000 of these were koalas, Australia's renowned marsupials.

Unfortunately, even prior to the bushfire disaster, the beloved koala was deemed endangered because to risks caused by poaching, land development, food degradation, droughts, and illness. When a result, as the flames raged, forest and wildfire authorities rapidly deployed drones to hunt for surviving koalas in both burned and unburned regions.

The rescue crew in Victoria used DJI's Mavic 2 Enterprise Series drones equipped with high-resolution thermal cameras to identify the koalas' heat signatures. Once bears were identified, the same drone's ultra-zoom visual camera assisted first responders in determining whether the animals need medical assistance. Cherry pickers were utilised to retrieve anyone in need of assistance.

M600 + koala in tree

Additionally, researchers in the nearby state of New South Wales agreed that thermal drones were far more cost effective and efficient than traditional surveying methods such as scat surveys or spotlighting with head lamps. This is because, despite their clearly identifiable appearance, koalas conceal themselves quite effectively and are notoriously difficult to identify.

Interestingly, thermal drones have also shown to be an effective tool in other areas of firefighting. No other developing technology has benefited firefighter and public safety as much as thermal imaging drones have, from spotting unseen hotspots and avoiding subsequent flames to gathering wildfire data at night.

Drones for wildlife surveys: observing penguins in reproduction

Penguins are awe-inspiring creatures. The Penguin family contains of around 18 species of birds found across the Southern Hemisphere. They spend their time on land and water, and are critical components of both land and ocean ecosystems' food chains. Indeed, research has established that penguin health is equivalent to ocean health.

Penguin up close and personal

However, climate change is becoming an increasing source of concern for the penguin population. This is why, each Antarctic summer (approximately October to February), scientists go on Antarctica's freezing snow-covered desert to study penguins and establish whether there is a link between population changes and seasonal quantities of frozen sea ice.

Historically, individual penguins were hand tagged. Helicopters proved to be excessively noisy and obtrusive, even after their expensive rates were discounted. Furthermore, the genuinely useful data could not be collected without flying below the legally authorised heights. As a result, researchers were forced to travel to the penguin colonies themselves, manually tag a lot of birds, then return each year to locate as many of them as possible.

That all changed in 2017 with the introduction of DJI drones. In only two days, human-piloted single-drone surveys began capturing colonies spanning 2 square kilometres and sheltering up to 300,000 nesting pairs. By 2020, that time had been reduced to just three hours, owing to the development of a new flight path algorithm that permitted the autonomous flight of many drones.

Penguins' crests

Researchers have now taught machine learning algorithms to locate and categorise penguins automatically in enormous amounts of high-resolution drone imagery. Additionally, the same approach may be used everywhere precise airborne data must be gathered rapidly and effectively, even in adverse winter weather conditions.

Drones for wildlife monitoring: locating denning polar bears

Polar bears are the climate change poster children. Environmentalists across the world have used images of terrified, famished polar bears clinging to a little piece of sea ice for dear life to show the Arctic's impact of global warming. However, polar bears' significance does not end with their capacity to elicit a strong emotional reaction to the climate catastrophe. Polar bears are at the top of their food chain and are vital to the marine environment's general health.

Two cubs and a polar bear

And, with only 22,000-31,000 polar bears left on the planet, scientists are naturally interested in rigorously monitoring their population, particularly during the denning season, to assess the species' response to the climate catastrophe.

Traditionally, wildlife monitoring aerial surveys have been conducted by pricey helicopter flights. However, in an environment where everything seems to be a sea of white due to the open doors of the helicopter, identifying the one-meter-wide den hole has frequently been challenging. To complicate matters further, pregnant bears favour the Arctic mountains' highest slopes, which become a dazzling mirror when the high midday light floods in.

GIF showing a Thermal View of a Polar Bear Den

As a result, researchers are now employing thermal imaging drones to find dens that are generally 10-15° C warmer than the surrounding environment. As a team of experts recently found, DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Series drones can safely resist cold and gusts of wind while flying at a distance that does not bother bears. Having a thermal camera with a 30x zoom camera on a single, easy-to-fly drone permitted not just speedy and safe polar bear surveillance, but also the search for and study of dens and animals.

Drone anti-poaching operations: rescuing the elephant

Elephants are critical ecosystem engineers, contributing to the conservation of forest and savanna biodiversity. And yet, despite an international prohibition on the ivory trade, between 20,000 and 40,000 elephants are poached each year.

The situation has deteriorated to the point where the African elephant, which was previously classified as 'vulnerable' by the IUCN, was upgraded to 'endangered' status last month following the discovery that the population of African forest elephants had declined by more than 86 percent over the last three decades.

To tackle the poaching pandemic in Kenya, elephant conservation organisations have begun utilising anti-poaching drones such as the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual or Mavic 2 Enterprise Zoom. Poachers may be discovered both during the day and at night using drone cameras with a 30x zoom and infrared imaging. Anti-poaching drones transmit live video to conservation crews on the ground, typically hundreds of kilometres distant, who may also capture the footage for subsequent study. Following that, any animal monitoring discoveries are shared with forest rangers and law enforcement.

GIF of Elephants Drone

So far, the findings have been exceedingly positive. For example, Kenya's Mara Elephant Project began utilising anti-poaching drones in 2014. The group was able to reduce the number of unlawfully slain elephants from 83 percent to 44 percent in five years, capturing over 300 poachers and seizing more than 1,000 kg of ivory in the process.

Drones and animals make an excellent combination: from a safe distance.

You have seen a tiny selection of conservation and anti-poaching efforts that utilise drone technology responsibly. Numerous other countries and organisations have employed drones to obtain unparalleled access to animals in remote locations. Conservation drones are monitoring Sandhill Cranes in Colorado and counting waterbirds in Florida, as well as surveying orangutan nests in Indonesia and seals in the Arctic waters. They fly at a safe distance to protect endangered wildlife and empower environmentalists to work more safely, accurately, and economically.