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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My main interest is in the application of geospatial technology for ecology and conservation
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Smith College & Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University
Senior Drone Data Scientist, Tufts University; Former Director of the Spatial Analysis Lab at Smith College. Teaching, learning, and collaborating with brilliant students & faculty
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Wildlife manager. Specialized in mammals, new technologies and abundance estimation
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This paper explores the use of UAVs equipped with thermal and standard cameras to accurately count the group sizes of the Critically Endangered cao vit gibbon, highlighting how this technology can overcome the...
13 June 2023
Link
AirSeed has developed a unique approach to tackle climate change and restore biodiversity by combining drone technology, machine learning, and seed pod biotechnology to carry out planting that’s 25x faster than...
30 May 2023
Link
Using computer vision to understand bee vision
Ellie Warren
Here's an innovative project from the Harvey Mudd College Bee Lab that could help us understand how bees view their environments, and thus better protect bee habitat. This project uses computer vision and drone imagery...
5 May 2023
Link
Researchers use taxidermy bird drones to monitor wildlife
Stephanie O'Donnell
Interesting project - “Our main goal for this is to develop a nature-friendly drone concept for wildlife monitoring,” Hassanalian said. “Traditional drones are often disruptive to ecosystems due to issues such as sound...
26 April 2023
Careers
Hardware Lead - Biodiversity / Conservation
Ben Williamson
New role at Pivotal Earth
4 April 2023
Article
New paper in Journal of Animal Ecology
24 March 2023
Link
We used a combination of high-resolution satellite tracking (Fastloc-GPS), uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) surveys, and capture-mark-recapture approaches to assess the abundance of immature hawksbill (Eretmochelys...
21 March 2023
Article
Discover how drones are revolutionising conservation efforts and learn five essential tips to fly responsibly and minimise harm to wildlife, humans, and the environment.
14 March 2023
Careers
Proposals wanted for Innovation in Practice
Ellie Warren
The Innovation in Practice edition of Methods in Ecology and Evolution is still seeking proposals about conservation technology
6 March 2023
Interesting article that links to research on how technology has made studying moose populations easier, with particularly good explanation of what makes moose populations difficult to track.
22 February 2023
Careers
The Environmental Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich welcomes applications for a postdoctoral fellowship on robotics methods for the collection of environmental DNA to automate monitoring of biodiversity in terrestrial...
12 February 2023
Link
How daredevil drones find nearly extinct plants hiding in cliffs
Stephanie O'Donnell
Nice article about one of the Rainforest XPrize semifinalist teams - using drones to sample plant species. 'Nyberg and the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) team, working with the State of Hawaii's Division of...
10 February 2023
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Latin America Community, Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Camera Traps, Drones, Early Career | 3 months 1 week ago | ||
| Hi Adam! Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. I have not used radar systems or AI systems for this sort of detection, but there are methods using change detection... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones, Wildlife Crime | 3 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hi @skirchgeorg , thanks for the additional info. We discuss again about this with my colleague and we were still hesitating with the drone, as it will still make some noise that... |
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Drones, eDNA & Genomics | 4 months 2 weeks ago | |
| Good morning JocelynThank you very much for your comment, this is proving to be very useful advice and thank you so much for setting me on the right path!! This is very exciting!!... |
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Animal Movement, Citizen Science, Human-Wildlife Coexistence, Marine Conservation, Drones, Community Base, Geospatial | 4 months 2 weeks ago | |
| Hi Nikita, If you haven't already, I'd recommend reaching out to the folks at the Cornell Ornithology lab. They're really glued into all things bird. In particular, I... |
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Animal Movement, Drones, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Coexistence | 4 months 3 weeks ago | |
| How much does it cost to incorporate machine learning into your conservation drone geospatial analysis? How does it speed up your workflow... |
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Conservation Tech Training and Education, Drones, Geospatial, Open Source Solutions, Sensors, Software Development | 5 months 2 weeks ago | |
| We just wanted to share this news outside the core robotics community - hoping to connect more with conservationists, researchers,... |
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AI for Conservation, Drones | 6 months ago | |
| @cmwainaina check this out |
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Drones, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Geospatial | 6 months 4 weeks ago | |
| Hi Simon,We (Reneco International Wildlife Consultants) have an ongoing collaboration with a local University (Abu Dhabi, UAE) for developing AI tools (cameratrap/drone... |
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Acoustics, AI for Conservation, Animal Movement, Camera Traps, Citizen Science, Connectivity, Drones, Early Career, eDNA & Genomics, Marine Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools, Sensors | 6 months 4 weeks ago | |
| Thank you David, a phenomenal source! |
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Drones, Geospatial, Protected Area Management Tools | 7 months 1 week ago | |
| I've used both Dronelink and Litchi for flight planning with my DJI Mini SE - and then stitched in WebODM. Both apps support most DJI drones that have a suporting SDK. I'm not... |
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Drones | 7 months 3 weeks ago | |
| Hi Matthew Wow, what an amazing project! It is incredible how you have managed to figure out some of the complexities of combining underwater imagery with UAV imagery. I am... |
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Drones, Geospatial, Marine Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools | 7 months 3 weeks ago |
