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
April 2024
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Wildlife Drones
December 2023
28 Products
Recently updated products
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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| Hi @twhitten The British Model Flying Association provide a specialist insurance for drone operators who are not using them as a hobby nor for commercial purposes ("... |
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Drones | 7 years 3 months ago | |
| This is a reminder about the ZSL Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation journal open call for papers on RPAS (aka UAVs)...... |
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Drones | 7 years 3 months ago | |
| The first WILDLABS Meetup in Cambridge, UK for 2017 comes off the back of this discussion in the drones group. Anyone who has an... |
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Drones | 7 years 3 months ago | |
| Hi all, I'm currently working on a project to improve forest quality assessments using drones. We would like to get hold of... |
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Drones | 7 years 4 months ago | |
| Thanks for the link, @jprobert ! Parrot Education Blog's own link also here for reference http://edu.parrot.com/blog/2016/12/06/parrot-pix4d-team-forest-canopy-... |
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Drones | 7 years 4 months ago | |
| The Parrot/Pix4D Climate innovation grant consists of an award of hardware and software for field research to foster innovation in... |
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Drones | 7 years 5 months ago | |
| Hi Jprobert, I have been trying to use my Phanton 3 proffessional together with Pix4Dmapper to trial out some forest mapping in Principe Island. if you are interested check... |
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Drones | 7 years 5 months ago | |
| 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 | 7 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 | 7 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 | 7 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 | 7 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 | 7 years 7 months ago |
Insight; a secure online platform designed for sharing experiences of conservation tool use.
7 November 2023 1:01pm
A secure platform designed for those working to monitor & protect natural resources. Insight facilitates sharing experience, knowledge & tools to increase efficiency & effectiveness in conservation. By sharing we reduce time & money spent to find, test, & implement solutions.
Welcome to Insight
Wildlife crime refers to any illegal activity that involves the taking, trading, or possession of wild animals and plants, or their parts and derivatives.
Insight
5 Trailblazing Wildlife Monitoring Tech Solutions across East Africa. What Monitoring Technologies are you using?
25 October 2023 12:40pm
Restoring the Mara Elephant Population Using Coexistence Tech Solutions with Mara Elephant Project's Wilson Sairowua
Wilson Sairowua
20 October 2023 1:31pm
How 3D Technologies are Reshaping Forest Ecology and Conservation
6 October 2023 1:13pm
Conservation Innovation Manager
27 September 2023 11:08pm
CIEEM 2023 Autumn Conference: Modernising Ecology: Techniques and Approaches
5 September 2023 1:59pm
Selecting a thermal imaging drone for wildlife monitoring
24 July 2023 4:52am
26 August 2023 1:09am
We have recently applied funding for one of these to find bird nests on the tundra in Greenland.
29 August 2023 12:42pm
Hi Doug,
we are a young startup that uses AI as a tool in nature and wildlife conservation. At the moment we develop a drone with on-board AI (for object detection) and thermal and "normal" camera. If you want to know more about the project, you can contact me [email protected]. I would be happy to help you.
Sustained Effort: Carbon Footprints and Capacity
Sol Milne
9 August 2023 10:00am
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge: Judges' Panel Honorees
WILDLABS Team
4 August 2023 10:00am
Mapping seagrass with drones and AI
4 August 2023 2:00am
GeoNadir shared how drones and AI can help assess seagrass habitats at the Great Barrier Reef, as well as how satellite imagery can monitor seagrass on a wider scale.
Mapping seagrass with machine learning and drones
Drone mapping combined with machine learning is providing a new level of detail for mapping seagrass extent on the Great Barrier Reef.
GeoNadir
#Tech4Wildlife Photo Challenge: Community Choice Honorees
WILDLABS Team
3 August 2023 10:00am
Workshop on the use of information and communications technology for conservation in Central Asia
1 August 2023 11:50pm
Wildlife Conservation Drones & Technologies Summit 2023
16 July 2023 10:04pm
Project Spotlight: Monitoring tropical freshwater fish in Kakadu National Park with drones, underwater cameras and AI
12 July 2023 3:40pm
12 July 2023 3:58pm
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 of the reason I got in touch with Andrew a few weeks ago is that I'm trying to keep track of public datasets and public models for marine video that have basically this gestalt (video where fish look fishy-ish). I think we're getting close to enough public data to train a general-purpose model that will work well across ecosystems. My running list of datasets is here:
https://lila.science/otherdatasets#images-marine-fish
Let me know if folks know of others!
There are also a grand total of two public models that I'm aware of that sort of fall into this category... one is Andrew's:
https://github.com/ajansenn/KakaduFishAI
The other is:
https://github.com/warplab/megafishdetector
If folks know of other publicly-available models, let me know about those too!
2023 Canon Oceania Grants - Environmental Grant AU$5,000
7 July 2023 1:47pm
Osa Conservation: A Multi-Tech Toolbox of Solutions
Osa Conservation
22 June 2023 10:42am
The Wildlife Society Conference
19 June 2023 5:59am
Catch up with The Variety Hour: June 2023
16 June 2023 11:43am
UAV-assisted counts of group size facilitate accurate population surveys of the Critically Endangered cao vit gibbon Nomascus nasutus
13 June 2023 3:51am
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 limitations of traditional ground-based methods and contribute to more robust population surveys and conservation efforts.
UAV-assisted counts of group size facilitate accurate population surveys of the Critically Endangered cao vit gibbon Nomascus nasutus | Oryx | Cambridge Core
UAV-assisted counts of group size facilitate accurate population surveys of the Critically Endangered cao vit gibbon Nomascus nasutus - Volume 58 Issue 2
ISO Speakers for Emerging Technologies class.
31 May 2023 4:29pm
31 May 2023 10:21pm
Definitely interested! I'm in the ecoacoustics/acoustic monitoring space, working at Rainforest Connection and Arbimon.
2 June 2023 2:08pm
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!
AirSeed: Drone planting takes flight to promote reforestation in flood-affected NSW
30 May 2023 12:28pm
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 traditional hand-planting methods.
AirSeed: Drone planting takes flight to promote reforestation in flood-affected NSW
AirSeed has developed a unique approach to tackle climate change and restore biodiversity by combining drone technology, machine learning, and seed pod biotechnology. To validate whether this approach could be delivered in partnership with disaster-affected communities to support local regeneration efforts, AirSeed collaborated with landholders impacted by landslides in northern NSW.
Humanitech | Australian Red Cross
Looking for AI volunteer positions
24 May 2023 5:41am
24 May 2023 3:45pm
Hi Donya! You might check out the Conservation Tech Directory to see what projects/organizations/tools best align with your interests and skills.
Animal tracking stories
22 May 2023 2:19am
Using computer vision to understand bee vision
5 May 2023 1:10am
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 to replicate "bee vision" of flowers and how it differs from a human's view of the same habitat.
Researchers use taxidermy bird drones to monitor wildlife
26 April 2023 2:40pm
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 and unfamiliarity, so developing quieter, natural-looking alternatives could help wildlife monitoring and research.”
Drone imagery management software
17 April 2023 2:17am
21 April 2023 2:41pm
GeoNadir and OpenDroneMap might be of interest for drones?
The Conservation Tech Directory might have some additional projects/tools of note.
AI for Pelicans Challenge
20 April 2023 10:04am
25 August 2023 12:15pm
Hi Doug,
I've got a Mavic 3T. Happy to chat about this and other fox related issues in Melb.
Mike.