Grassroots Vol 22 No 1 | Page 45

NEWS

Large drones make a big splash : Using smaller drones to conduct less disruptive wildlife surveys

Chloe V . Robinson ( Post provided by Kayla Kuhlmann )

Current Address : Methods Blog Reprinted from : https :// bit . ly / 3tUvNqc

Ecologists have started looking into drones as new tools for wildlife surveys , but how can drone disturbance be minimized in order to produce accurate wildlife counts ? In this post , Kayla Kuhlmann describes a drone practice to reduce disruption during acoustic bat surveys as featured in the paper “ Miniaturization eliminates detectable impacts of drones on bat activity ”, recently published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution .

Drones offer an appealing tool for wildlife surveys
Several countries have lifted legal restrictions on drone flight , and now researchers can consider how drones offer advantages over current methods in wildlife surveying . For instance , drones can navigate over inaccessible landscapes quickly and safely compared to surveyors on foot . In some cases , drones could offer a safer , cheaper , and quieter method to collect aerial data that traditionally require manned aircraft , such as helicopters . Also , drones come in many forms ( from rotary quadcopters , to fixed wing “ planes ”, and boat drones ) and can carry a variety of payloads ( including cameras , acoustic recorders , GPS devices , and frequency receivers ) which make them versatile for wildlife surveys .
Despite the enthusiasm to conduct wildlife counts with drones , some surveyors still hesitate because of the conflicting reactions by wildlife . Although studies focused on monitoring rhinos , bats & birds , and wildlife in general observed little to no obvious behavioral response to UAV flight , others have documented strong behavioral responses ( e . g . seabird species , particularly sub-Antarctic seabirds ) and physiological stress responses ( e . g . bears ). Researchers do
Figure 1 . Hoary bat ( Lasiurus cinereus ). Credit : Veronica Zamora-Gutierrez .
not want to disturb the wildlife they are studying , especially since doing so can cause animals to abandon the site and change the results of the surveys .
The several types of drones and the differences in their characteristics inspired us to examine how variation in drone size , noise , and frequencies would affect wildlife activity . The goal was to discover whether different drone models had varying effects on wildlife and to determine which drone characteristics make them most disturbing to our study species .
Detecting
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Bats are typically surveyed with special-
Grassroots Vol 22 No 1 March 2022 44