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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

Description	Activity	Groups	Updated
Drone teaching/research license	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...	Drones	8 years 10 months ago
(ARCHIVED) PHD position available in using drones for mapping	Ups, it's true :( I hope that you can try to apply anyway. Regards	Drones	8 years 11 months ago
(ARCHIVED) Opportunity to work with elephants and drones in Thailand	Anyone want to work on Elephants (in natural habitat) ? At Pah Muang Wildlife Sanctuary (along to road Chiang Mai to Lampang) there are...	Drones	8 years 11 months ago
New review: Opportunities and challenges of drones for ecology	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	9 years ago
Analytical report on drones in conservation value.	For anyone interested in an overview of how drones are being deployed for conservation, this piece by Serge Wich (of ConservationDrones.org) provides a...	Drones	9 years ago
April Meetup: Can UAVs be used to measure forest quality?	In April, the Cambridge Conservation Tech Group held its second meetup, which brought together colleagues from RSPB, Birdlife, FFI,...	Drones	9 years 3 months ago
Great article talking about applying drones to scientific research	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...	Drones	9 years 3 months ago
What to you is the biggest small problem with using UAVs in the field?	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...	Drones	9 years 4 months ago
Automated Forest Restoration with Drones	Hi Lot, great to see you here too.	Drones	9 years 4 months ago
Collecting Your Opinions about Drones	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...	Drones	9 years 4 months ago
Solar powered drone for conservation	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...	Drones	9 years 5 months ago
Integrating UAV imagery into ArcGIS	http://www.esri.com/products/drone2map#beta ESRI is developing the means of putting UAV imagery into ArcGIS. Sign up to keep...	Drones	9 years 5 months ago