Drones Save 450 Baby Deer From Harvest in Switzerland

The missions were coordinated by BKPJV,  a conservation, gamekeeper and hunting organization.  They were able to spot the fawns from above from their thermal signatures and catch them before any harm could come to them.

The method was first trialled in Lower Engadine, Switzerland in 2018. Since then, 19 new drones and 150 new pilots were recruited for the search and rescue campaign during spring.

In 2020, the project is to be extended further, although the use of drones is still seen as supplementary alongside traditional approaches to keeping deep away from crops, which include scent marking.

Switzerland is one of Europe’s drone technology hubs. Researchers at Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and in Zurich are at the cutting edge of dynamic obstacle avoidance and quirky but intuitive piloting technology, among other things.

It’s only natural that flying robots and specialized sensors are having an impact at a grass-roots level, too.