I would also be interested - looking at starting a project that need observation of large african animals with nocturnal habits... Holy grail with unlimited funding would be a grid of 100's of cameras :-)

Nightjar comes to mind but I am not too sure if it is actually “on the market”…

There's quite a few diy or prototype solutions described online and in literature - but it seems none of these have made it to market yet as generally available fully usable products. We can only hope. 

A quick search comes up with the following answer. Let us know if that helps.

Annex III of the European Environmental Agency (EEA) does not directly regulate the protection or hunting of specific species. Instead, it's important to look at Annexes II and IVof the EU Habitats Directive (Directive 92/43/EEC) for species protection and hunting regulations in the European Union.

Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is not listed in Annex IV (which covers strictly protected species), meaning it is not afforded the strictest protection that prevents all forms of exploitation. However, Annex III of the Bern Convention, which relates to species that may be exploited but require careful regulation, includes species like roe deer.

In many European countries, roe deer hunting is permitted under specific regulated conditions. These regulations aim to ensure sustainable hunting practices and maintain healthy population levels, with hunting seasons and quotas determined based on local wildlife management policies.

In summary, roe deer are generally not strictly protected across the EU, and hunting is allowed under regulation, though specific conditions depend on national and regional legislation.

Disclaimer: I can't guarantee that the above is not a hallucination :-)

When you say lower resolution do you also mean 640x480 resolution ? The drone Lars is referring to has that. Of course is higher than the budget of the inquirer. But I curious because things are changing. I have a 1280x1024 pixel thermal at the moment. Obviously anything but cheap.

@kimhendrikse  Resolution is a term that can be confusing as it is applied to both the on-ground effective resolution: GSD (Ground Sampling Distance) as well as the resolution of the sensor. Ultimately the only thing that is important is if you can get the image quality that you need to be able to answer your research/management/security question. This is a result of the sensor resolution, the focal length of the lens and the distance from the object to the sensor. When there is a need to scan large areas drones need to fly higher to optimise battery life and ground covered and this reduces the effective resolution (GSD) regardless of which sensor you use. It depends on your needs if this is still sufficient or not. In my case, flying at 180m I have a GSD of 10.1cm which is enough to detect but not to classify animals.

180m is indeed very high and from above. I think a 640x512 thermal sensor with a 70mm lens can see animals at at 180m from sideways and could recognise something as a deer, but vertical I doubt it. In any case that's the specs of a handheld monocular I have and the distance that I see deer at that I believe could be recognised as deer.

I have a 1280x1024 pixel thermal camera here I will be testing but it's around 7x the price of the 640x512 one and quite a bit heavier.

Thanks for the details.

I would love to see my bat detector designs in use in Africa - drop me a line, let's see if we can get something to happen - I'm pipistrelledetector at gmail dot com

http://www.pippyg.com

Thank you so much Brett.

I am not familiar with some of these tools such as critter alarm but I did search a little about it and it looks very interesting, I will look more on it's effectiveness on Elephants and Hyenas.

The beehive method is neat! Will have to read up on that.