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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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@Wade

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@fpradosnieto

Spanish veterinarian interested in wildlife conservation

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@CaseyAliveAI
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I'm an AI developer focused on ecology and the director of Alive AI

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@Fatuma
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I aim to transition my career towards conservation technology after gaining two years of experience in the tech industry.

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@Mumonkan
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Conservation X Labs & Wild Me

Software Engineer for Wildlife Conservation

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@abigithbaby

I am an Ecologist working at the intersection of conservation and technology. Looking forward to better understand the use of GIS, Drones, Camera Traps and Bioacoutics in conservation & restoration.

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@JenniHopeela

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@ZitaVarju

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@jennamkline
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PhD Student @ tOSU, Autonomous Drones for Collective Animal Behavior Studies

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@Mathilde
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Natural Solutions

Engineer, I work for a web development company on web application projects for biodiversity conservation. I'm especially interested by camera traps, teledetection and DeepLearning subjects.

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@BlairRCostelloe

Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

Behavioral Ecologist

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@Danielle_Denno

Systems Engineer and Zoologist

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Description	Activity	Replies	Groups	Updated
Selecting a thermal imaging drone for wildlife monitoring	Hi all,maybe it helps 😉 My free manual 'Drones in Biomonitoring' - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8077113 can help to get (more) knowledge how to proceed easily and successfully...	+2	Drones	9 months 1 week ago
Using drones and camtraps to find sloths in the canopy	Thank you for elaborating, @evebohnett ! And for the heads ups!	+22	Camera Traps, Drones	1 year ago
Wildlife Drones will be hosting in-person demos in the U.S.	We will be conducting in-person demos of our cutting-edge drone technology in the US this year! 🇺🇸 If you're interested in experiencing...		Animal Movement, Drones, Geospatial, Software Development	1 year 3 months ago
Passionate engineer offering funding and tech solutions pro-bono.	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...		Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Citizen Science, Climate Change, Community Base, Connectivity, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Sensors, Software Development, Wildlife Crime, Funding and Finance	1 year 3 months ago
Reasonable price for drone pilot (south africa)?	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...	+2	Drones, East Africa Community	1 year 3 months ago
Need advice - image management and tagging	Hi!I would take a look at Although developed for camera trap imagery, it is by no means restricted to such.Cheers,Lars		Camera Traps, Community Base, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Emerging Tech, Geospatial, Software Development	1 year 3 months ago
In what ways can drones contribute to linking individuals, communities, and small-scale producers in rural areas, facilitating the support of local food value chains	In what ways can drones contribute to linking individuals, communities, and small-scale producers in rural areas, facilitating the support...		Drones, Geospatial	1 year 5 months ago
Come for the trees and geese, stay for the AI: using computer vision for urban forestry and wildlife monitoring	@dmorris joined Variety Hour to give us 'a bunch of lightning talks inside a lightning talk'. Check out the recording to get a whirlwind...		AI for Conservation, Drones, Geospatial	1 year 5 months ago
Drone mapping at scale: capturing, processing, and distributing aerial imagery in Virunga National Park	@caseyslaught is a Full-stack engineer with Virunga National Park, and he's built a handy tool to host, visualize, and...		Drones	1 year 5 months ago
How 3D Technologies are Reshaping Forest Ecology and Conservation	Stefano Puliti joined Variety Hour to share his work using 3D photogrammetric data from UAVs for pre- and post-harvest inventory of forest...		Climate Change, Data management and processing tools, Drones, Geospatial	1 year 7 months ago
Project Spotlight: Monitoring tropical freshwater fish in Kakadu National Park with drones, underwater cameras and AI	During Andrew's talk, @dmorris put out a call in the chat that might be relevant to folks catching up on the video, so I'll drop it here too: Re: Andrew's fish work... part...		AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Drones, Marine Conservation	1 year 10 months ago
ISO Speakers for Emerging Technologies class.	Carly, that would be great! Thanks! I work with soundscapes and love the work of Rainforest Connection! I'll send you an email (@CUNY) to coordinate!		Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Drones, eDNA & Genomics, Emerging Tech, Geospatial	1 year 11 months ago