Studying birds for a living might sound like a cool job. But it's not without its logistical challenges, for us landbound animals. "I can remember precisely a location where I had a northern gannet, so a really large bird, breeding on the top of the cliff."
David Grémillet, a seabird ecologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research.
"And from the bottom of the cliff I couldn't see what was happening in that nest. I couldn't even see whether the bird was home or not."
Grémillet says technology offers a simple solution: "A drone carefully flown at high altitude over the colony would have been really helpful." That's right—a drone. Grémillet says scientists and citizens alike are increasingly using drones to approach birds—either for fun or legitimate research. But they’re taking flight without knowing how the aerial robots might affect their avian study subjects.
Of Drones and Cranes: UAV Technology Aids Bird Conservation | Cool Green Science
Estimating how many birds are roosting at these sites a real challenge. The only option so far has been to count them as they fly in before dark, jotting down their numbers as quickly as possible. But they are not done arriving and moving around until after dark, and counting multiple flocks as they come from all directions is not easy!
To get accurate counts, what you’d ideally want to do is wait until after dark, when they’ve all arrived and settled down, then count them from overhead. A serious challenge.
This spring we tested a new technology that we think has the potential to provide much better bird counts on a regular basis and will help us track populations in ways we haven’t been able to before: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or drones).
UAVs are the new black in tech, kind of like Web 2.0. We’re fielding at least a call or email each week about a start-up or university lab that is looking at novel ways to use drones.
And there’s been some great conservation applications by WWF and conservationdrones.org. At its core a UAV is any type of aircraft (fixed wing or multi-rotor) that can be flown autonomously by providing way points with mission planning software.
Drones Take Off as Wildlife Conservation Tool | Audubon
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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