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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

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Description	Activity	Replies	Groups	Updated
Advice on afforable LiDAR scanners for Amazon forest surveys	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...		Drones, Earth Observation 101 Community, Emerging Tech, Geospatial, Sensors	2 years 4 months ago
Exploring storage options for mass data collection	Thank you so much for your reply! I'll look in to this now :)		Acoustics, Autonomous Camera Traps for Insects, Camera Traps, Data Management & Mobilisation, Drones, Geospatial, Software Development	2 years 5 months ago
Computer Science student looking to work for wildlife	I couldn't agree more with both of these comments tom! I'm reading hundreds (literally hundreds) of applications for open WILDLABS roles at the moment, and the ones that stand out...	+2	AI for Conservation, Drones, Early Career, Sensors	2 years 5 months ago
Drones for GIS - Best Practice	Hi all,I've been quickly developing in-house drone services in the UK for Providence Ecological and have found some useful information for building a workflow with Rich...	+8	Geospatial, Drones	2 years 6 months ago
Recommendations needed: UAV controlled via 4G or 5G and capable of carrying a heat camera?	Hi folks, @Lars_Holst_Hansen asked this over on twitter and hasn't had any replies yet, so I thought it might be something that...		Drones	2 years 6 months ago
Call for Data: A Global Database of Tree Crown Footprints from RGB Imagery	Bluesky have a commercial tree crown dataset available covering most of Great Britain (England, Wales and parts of Scotland). There is a canopy layer with approximate outlines of...		AI for Conservation, Drones	2 years 6 months ago
Interview for Technologies in Conservation	My original background is in ecology and conservation, and am now in the elected leadership of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware which convenes researchers developing open...		AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data Management & Mobilisation, Drones, Emerging Tech, Sensors	2 years 7 months ago
Picking up signal of GPS tag	Hey Sol, The only way for you to collect information from a GPS tag attached to a FAD is if that tag transmits that data to the drone. Unfortunately most receiver packages...		Drones, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions	2 years 9 months ago
Conservation Tech Directory - new update!	Thanks so much!!		Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Community Base, Data Management & Mobilisation, Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Open Source Solutions, Geospatial, Software Development	2 years 11 months ago
A Triphibian Surveillance Vehicle	Hey all!I am Ayush, a core team member of my school's Robotics Club (Center For Innovation, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras). There...		Drones, Sensors, Wildlife Crime, Early Career	3 years 1 month ago
New Conservation Tech Directory update	@gracieermi & I are happy to announce the latest update to the Conservation Tech Directory, bringing our total resources in the...		Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Community Base, Data Management & Mobilisation, Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Geospatial, Software Development	3 years 2 months ago
Cofounder needed	Some folks doing work in this space - Wildlife Drones, Conservation Drones, UAV Wild, AfricanDrones, Oceans Unmanned, Geonadir.		Drones, AI for Conservation, Citizen Science, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech	3 years 2 months ago