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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Conservationist currently working as UAS Remote Pilot & with ecoacoustics
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- @magali
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Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Postdoctoral researcher at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
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Faculty Manager for Higher Education. Lecturer in Animal Behaviour, Animal Welfare and Wildlife Conservation
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Machine Learning Developer willing to contribute to AI for the planet projects
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Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Assistant Director/Curator of Prospect Park Zoo of the Wildlife Conservation Society
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- @paunec
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Engineer, drone pilot, additive manufacturing hobbyist. Seeking the magic that happens at the intersection of conservation and tech.
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- @matthew.boddy
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Lead Geospatial Analyst/Programmer at Wildlife Conservation Society Canada
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Researcher in behavioural biology & conservation focussing on wild canids
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- @ChrisThouless
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Director of Elephant Crisis Fund, Research Director of Save the Elephants
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I'm a GIS and Remote Sensing specialist with a focus on conservation, currently working as a Visual Data Scientist. I'm passionate about leveraging AI tools to enhance conservation and environmental management efforts.
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Link
Great use of drones from Fauna&Flora's team
7 November 2024
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
Careers
Seeking expressions of interest from PhD candidates to join the MAVE Lab at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia
26 August 2024
Funding
The Resilient Futures Technology Grant Program by DroneDeploy.org is dedicated to fostering radical inclusion in urgent solutions. Our mission is to enhance outcomes for underresourced populations by prioritizing...
26 August 2024
Article
Join us in celebrating this year’s Judging Panele Award winners!
19 August 2024
Article
Join us in celebrating this year’s Community Choice Award winners!
15 August 2024
Article
Vote for your favorite submissions that best demonstrate conservation impact, novel innovation/discovery, and strong storytelling of the work and the sector.
12 August 2024
Article
Handbook 'Drones in Biomonitoring & Nature Conservation'
Steffen Döring
The use of drones can contribute in various ways to increase the effectiveness of monitoring, reduce costs, and minimize disturbances. This manual has been specifically developed to support conservation efforts and to...
27 June 2024
Link
Handbook 'Drones in Biomonitoring & Nature Conservation'
Steffen Döring
The use of drones can contribute in various ways to increase the effectiveness of monitoring, reduce costs, and minimize disturbances. This manual has been developed to support conservation efforts and to help make the...
27 June 2024
Article
Enter to win a free thermal camera!
Alex Rood
WILDLABS is partnering with FLIR to give away a FLIR ONE Edge Pro to 5 community members.
26 June 2024
Article
Case Study: Drone-based radio-tracking of Eastern Bandicoots
Wildlife Drones
Wildlife Drones was deployed by Zoos Victoria in a trial project tracking captive-bred Eastern Barred Bandicoots that were tagged and released into the wild
14 June 2024
August 2025
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Louisa Richmond-Coggan
September 2025
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Louisa Richmond-Coggan
March 2026
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Stephanie O'Donnell
December 2020
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Recently updated products
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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| Very cool, thanks for sharing, Adrian! We'll put this up on Twitter as well. |
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Drones | 4 years 10 months ago | |
| Hi all, Firstly, I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended my Tech Tutors presentation last month. And secondly, thank you for your patience in allowing... |
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Animal Movement, Drones | 4 years 10 months ago | |
| We are happy to share that we open a worldwide-first research residency in ecosystem restoration with drones and native seeds. Do you... |
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Drones | 5 years ago | |
| Hi all, There is a conversation underway in the "Ethics of conservation tech" group on best practices for responsible use of... |
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Drones | 5 years 2 months ago | |
| Hi! We've been using our Mavic 2 Pro to create 3d models and volumetric assessments of mangroves. We're learning more about... |
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Drones | 5 years 3 months ago | |
| Hi Ruth, Thanks for your email. Essentially the software is only an advantage if the drones are being flown at altitudes that provide a wide area and less visible detail (i.... |
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Drones | 5 years 4 months ago | |
| Hi everyone! We are very excited to announce that the BIRDSAI dataset for conservation drones is now publicly available at https://sites.... |
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Drones | 5 years 5 months ago | |
| We are very excited to announce that our open-source drone-reforestation crowdfunding is LIVE! We know climate change is here,... |
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Drones | 5 years 5 months ago | |
| Hello, I'm new here. I thought I would share an article that I wrote a couple of years ago about my work with using drones for... |
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Drones | 5 years 6 months ago | |
| Hi everyone, I have a LIDAR sensor (LIDAR USA-Fagerman Technologies-Velodyne puck) and a DJI M-600 drone. I would like to use... |
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Drones | 5 years 7 months ago | |
| Cheers Al, and looking forward to hearing more about them. I am, as we speak, editing some thermal videos of wallaby behaviour near roads, specifically in relation to devices... |
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Drones | 5 years 7 months ago | |
| Really useful to know about that package, thanks |
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Drones | 5 years 8 months ago |
