A standardized protocol for reporting methods when using drones for wildlife research

Barnas, Andrew F.; Chabot, Dominque; Hodgson, Amanda; Johnston, David W.; Bird, David M.; Ellis‐Felege, Susan N.

doi:10.1139/juvs-2019-0011

Cited by 51 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…No flights were conducting in inclement weather or when winds exceeded 32 km/h. Further details about UAV equipment and methods (Barnas et al 2020) can be found in Appendix S1.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applications of an unmanned aerial vehicle and thermal‐imaging camera to study ducks nesting over water

et al. 2020

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Finding and monitoring nests are key components of avian research, but they are often expensive, time-consuming, and inefficient operations. This is certainly true for diving ducks that nest in wetlands with thick emergent vegetation where nests are typically located by teams of technicians that wade through a marsh and beat vegetation with sticks, hoping to flush incubating females or encounter nests without a female present. Taking advantage of recent advances in both unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and thermal-imaging cameras, our objectives were to (1) compare our ability to locate duck nests using a UAV and using traditional on-foot searching methods, and (2) determine if nests monitored remotely with the UAV had different survival rates than nests monitored with traditional nest-site visits. We searched for nests with a UAV system in southern Manitoba during the springs of 2018 and 2019. Using the UAV, we located 48 nests not found by ground crews, ground crews found 164 nests not found with the UAV, and 71 nests were found using both methods. Overall, nests were less likely to be detected with the UAV (0.34) than by ground crews (0.71), but surveys were completed approximately four times faster with the UAV. Detectability of nests varied among duck species (range = 0.55-0.04). We found no difference in nest survival between nests monitored with the UAV (0.95) and those repeatedly visited by ground crews (0.95). However, in 2018, ground monitoring resulted in 19 nests being abandoned by females, compared to only one monitored with the UAV. Our results demonstrate that UAVs equipped with thermal cameras can be used to find nests of ducks located over water, with greater success for species that nest earlier and those whose nests are not buried under matted vegetation. Furthermore, monitoring nests with the UAV resulted in lower rates of nest abandonment, and survival of nests monitored with the UAV was similar to that of nests monitored using traditional methods. Additional species-and habitat-specific studies are needed to fully understand the utility and challenges associated with using UAVs equipped with thermal imaging to survey species of wetland wildlife.

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“…No flights were conducting in inclement weather or when winds exceeded 32 km/h. Further details about UAV equipment and methods (Barnas et al 2020) can be found in Appendix S1.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applications of an unmanned aerial vehicle and thermal‐imaging camera to study ducks nesting over water

et al. 2020

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“…Our dataset consists of a maximum of 20 individual bears with 31 distinct foraging bouts (as some bears foraged more than once in a day) that range from 2.85 to 134 min (mean = 32 min; median = 26 min; range = 131 min). For further details on drone operations, including how we minimized bear disturbance, see the Drone Reporting Protocol [69] in electronic supplementary material. royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos R. Soc.…”

Section: Polar Bear Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polar bears are inefficient predators of seabird eggs

et al. 2021

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Climate-mediated sea-ice loss is disrupting the foraging ecology of polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) across much of their range. As a result, there have been increased reports of polar bears foraging on seabird eggs across parts of their range. Given that polar bears have evolved to hunt seals on ice, they may not be efficient predators of seabird eggs. We investigated polar bears' foraging performance on common eider ( Somateria mollissima ) eggs on Mitivik Island, Nunavut, Canada to test whether bear decision-making heuristics are consistent with expectations of optimal foraging theory. Using aerial-drones, we recorded multiple foraging bouts over 11 days, and found that as clutches were depleted to completion, bears did not exhibit foraging behaviours matched to resource density. As the season progressed, bears visited fewer nests overall, but marginally increased their visitation to nests that were already empty. Bears did not display different movement modes related to nest density, but became less selective in their choice of clutches to consume. Lastly, bears that capitalized on visual cues of flushing eider hens significantly increased the number of clutches they consumed; however, they did not use this strategy consistently or universally. The foraging behaviours exhibited by polar bears in this study suggest they are inefficient predators of seabird eggs, particularly in the context of matching behaviours to resource density.

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“…Unfortunately for some entities drone usage may be periodically restricted, as has been seen while governments navigate cybersecurity issues (e.g., grounding of some United States federal agency drone fleets -U.S. Department of the Interior [USDOI], 2020). While the UAS research community has begun to harmonize methods, standards, procedures, and reporting (Joyce et al, 2018;Barnas et al, 2020), there remains work to be done (Buters et al, 2019). Some key caveats for UAS MER applications are related to image acquisition methods.…”

Section: Caveatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Marine Ecosystem Restoration

Ridge

Johnston

2020

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Assessing, implementing and monitoring ecosystem restoration can be a labor intensive process, often short term (<3 years), and potentially destructive to the habitat. Advances in remote sensing technology are generating rapid, non-destructive methods for siting, executing and monitoring restoration efforts, particularly in fragile marine environments. Unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, are a highly flexible method for accessing and remote sensing ecosystems with on-demand capabilities, greater resolution than sensors from satellites and occupied aircraft, and the ability to cover large areas quickly. With the variety of platforms and payloads available, UASs are providing a suite of tools for conservation practitioners to properly plan marine ecosystem restoration projects and evaluate their success. Both conventional and specialized sensors coupled with image processing techniques can be used to gauge impact to and recovery of entire ecological communities. For example, high-resolution, multispectral imaging allows for discernment of population changes across trophic levels, concurrent with the discrimination of species (including rare) across a landscape, and detection of vegetation stress. Structure from Motion photogrammetric processing provides centimeter-scale three-dimensional models of habitat structure to measure ecologically significant aspects like rugosity and assess their change through time. Water quality around a broad impacted area can be remotely monitored via a number of payloads before and after restoration. Additionally, specially designed payloads can be used to manually disperse seeds or materials for restoration applications without disturbing the habitat. UASs have increasing potential to reduce the costs (both time and money) associated with restoration efforts, making site assessment and long-term, broad-scale monitoring more achievable. Here we present a review of the applications of UASs in marine ecosystem restoration with an overview of the special considerations of using this technology in the marine environment.

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A standardized protocol for reporting methods when using drones for wildlife research

Cited by 51 publications

References 65 publications

Applications of an unmanned aerial vehicle and thermal‐imaging camera to study ducks nesting over water

Applications of an unmanned aerial vehicle and thermal‐imaging camera to study ducks nesting over water

Polar bears are inefficient predators of seabird eggs

Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS) for Marine Ecosystem Restoration

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