Drones Take Off as Wildlife Conservation Tool

from audubonmagazine.org

UAVs are poised to revolutionize ecology and even save scientists’ lives.

James Junda stared down at the broken corpse of his drone. Just moments before, his five-pound helicopter had hovered beside an Osprey nest atop a 30-foot pole in northwestern Montana, its camera offering an up-close look at the adults and their two chicks. Apparently, Papa Osprey had tired of the spy. He batted the chopper, sending it spinning to the ground. The four blades snapped, an arm popped off, and the body broke into pieces. As Junda and an assistant, Marianna DiMauro, scurried along the rural road, gathering up bits of plastic and metal, the raptor circled above. “He was pretty proud of himself,” Junda recalls wryly. Indeed, victory was his: The drone—one of Junda’s two—was ruined.

But then, better the drone than Junda.

Light-aircraft crashes are the No. 1 killer of wildlife biologists. Between 1937 and 2000, 91 biologists and other scientists died in the field, according to a 2003 study in the Wildlife Society Bulletin, and 60 of them were killed in plane or helicopter crashes. What’s more, the study says, most of those 60 appeared to have been flying at the low altitudes necessary for observing and tracking wildlife. Recent years have seen more deaths. David Maehr, for instance, crashed and died in 2008 tracking radio-collared black bears in Florida, and Kristina Norstrom perished last year trailing caribou in Alberta.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), known colloquially as drones, don’t offer just a safer way for scientists to observe their subjects; they’re often less costly, more efficient, and more precise than traditional approaches. As Junda can attest, biologists are still navigating the challenges and complexities of mixing wildlife and drones, working to improve maneuverability, autonomy, and endurance—and hitting regulatory hurdles. Learning curve aside, the technology holds incredible potential. “Drones are going to change the way that data is collected,” says Leanne Hanson, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist who has used them to count migrating Sandhill Cranes.

James Junda stared down at the broken corpse of his drone. Just moments before, his five-pound helicopter had hovered beside an Osprey nest atop a 30-foot pole in northwestern Montana, its camera offering an up-close look at the adults and their two chicks. Apparently, Papa Osprey had tired of the spy. He batted the chopper, sending it spinning to the ground. The four blades snapped, an arm popped off, and the body broke into pieces. As Junda and an assistant, Marianna DiMauro, scurried along the rural road, gathering up bits of plastic and metal, the raptor circled above. “He was pretty proud of himself,” Junda recalls wryly. Indeed, victory was his: The drone—one of Junda’s two—was ruined.

But then, better the drone than Junda.

Light-aircraft crashes are the No. 1 killer of wildlife biologists. Between 1937 and 2000, 91 biologists and other scientists died in the field, according to a 2003 study in the Wildlife Society Bulletin, and 60 of them were killed in plane or helicopter crashes. What’s more, the study says, most of those 60 appeared to have been flying at the low altitudes necessary for observing and tracking wildlife. Recent years have seen more deaths. David Maehr, for instance, crashed and died in 2008 tracking radio-collared black bears in Florida, and Kristina Norstrom perished last year trailing caribou in Alberta.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), known colloquially as drones, don’t offer just a safer way for scientists to observe their subjects; they’re often less costly, more efficient, and more precise than traditional approaches. As Junda can attest, biologists are still navigating the challenges and complexities of mixing wildlife and drones, working to improve maneuverability, autonomy, and endurance—and hitting regulatory hurdles. Learning curve aside, the technology holds incredible potential. “Drones are going to change the way that data is collected,” says Leanne Hanson, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist who has used them to count migrating Sandhill Cranes.

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