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
- @adamsteer
- | Dr/He/Him
Researcher and consultant focused on snow, ice and landscapes, drone pilot, lidar and airborne remote sensing analyst. Based in Australia, thinks a lot about connected systems in mountain and polar landscapes. Open source geospatial specialist.
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- @Adwait
- | He
Postdoc at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour
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Holder of BSc in Applied Zoology. Assistant Ecologist at Ruaha National park.
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- 7 Discussions
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- @sarah_dalrymple
- | she/her
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
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- 9 Discussions
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- @jenlaw
- | She/Her
Biodiversity scientist specialising specialising in the study of tropical ecosystems and their biodiversity using multiple forms of technology, including acoustics, images and robotics.
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- 0 Discussions
- 14 Groups
- @lampros
- | He/Him
I am a Data and Remote Sensing Analyst specializing in programming (R, Python) at Monopteryx, contributor to open-source projects related to machine-, deep-learning, remote sensing and interested in Biodiversity
- 0 Resources
- 4 Discussions
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- @Riley
- | she/they
I'm a Data Scientist at Western EcoSystems Technology. I am interested in AI processing and statistical modeling of acoustic data and camera trap and drone imagery.
- 2 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- 9 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- @parlaynu
- | he/him
software engineer
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- 11 Groups
Arribada Initiative
Director at Arribada, a UK-based conservation technology research & development organisation
- 2 Resources
- 98 Discussions
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- @Arjun_Viswa
- | S
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Article
Nature Tech for Biodiversity Sector Map launched!
Carly Batist and 1 more
Conservation International is proud to announce the launch of the Nature Tech for Biodiversity Sector Map, developed in partnership with the Nature Tech Collective!
1 April 2025
Link
deadtrees.earth
Elsa Carla De Grandi
An open database for accessing, contributing, analyzing, and visualizing remote sensing-based tree mortality data. Beta version
9 March 2025
Funding
Osa Conservation is launching our inaugural cohort of the ‘Susan Wojcicki Research Fellowship’ for 2025, worth up to $15,000 per awardee (award value dependent on project length and number of awards given each year)....
10 February 2025
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Over the years, a large number of developments have gone up in the area that I live in and the municipality is not doing what they should when it comes to upholding the laws that have been put in place to protect the...
20 January 2025
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New PhD - Drones, seaweeds & climate change
Chris Yesson
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30 December 2024
Link
AmazonTEC: 4D Technology for Biodiversity Monitoring in the Amazon (English)
Elsa Carla De Grandi
Interesting webinar on the use of advanced technologies(e.g. Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, drones, camera traps and satellites) for biodiversity monitoring in the Amazon. Also available in Spanish.
25 November 2024
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We are hiring a computer vision developer at the University of Florida!
20 November 2024
Link
Great use of drones from Fauna&Flora's team
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Link
deadtrees.earth is an open-access platform hosting more than a thousand centimeter-resolution orthophotos, more than 300,000 ha. Combined with Earth observation data and machine learning it will enable to uncover tree...
2 November 2024
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Seeking expressions of interest from PhD candidates to join the MAVE Lab at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia
26 August 2024
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Wildlife Drones
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33 Products
Recently updated products
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colleagues at WWF are working with US agencies in the Northern Great Plains to pilot drones for plague vaccine delivery in... |
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Drones | 8 years 7 months ago | |
| 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! ;)... |
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Drones | 8 years 7 months ago | |
| It takes a serious threat to convince the National Park Service to allow drones in its airspace, and for Puuhonua O Honaunau that was the... |
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Drones | 8 years 7 months ago | |
| 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... |
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Drones | 8 years 7 months ago | |
| 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... |
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Drones | 8 years 7 months ago | |
| Ups, it's true :( I hope that you can try to apply anyway. Regards |
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Drones | 8 years 8 months ago | |
| Anyone want to work on Elephants (in natural habitat) ? At Pah Muang Wildlife Sanctuary (along to road Chiang Mai to Lampang) there are... |
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Drones | 8 years 8 months ago | |
| 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... |
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Drones | 8 years 9 months ago | |
| For anyone interested in an overview of how drones are being deployed for conservation, this piece by Serge Wich (of ConservationDrones.org) provides a... |
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Drones | 8 years 9 months ago | |
| In April, the Cambridge Conservation Tech Group held its second meetup, which brought together colleagues from RSPB, Birdlife, FFI,... |
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Drones | 9 years ago | |
| 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... |
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Drones | 9 years ago | |
| 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... |
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Drones | 9 years ago |
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17 February 2016 12:00am
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2 February 2016 10:13pm
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12 January 2016 2:59pm
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22 December 2015 12:00am
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24 November 2015 6:32pm
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
2 November 2015 12:00am
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