Providing Wildlife Security Through Drones

Figure 1 - Rhino. Reprinted from Ref [3].

The Earth’s biodiversity consists of a variety of beautiful, interlinked life forms, such as flora and fauna species. However, our ecosystem needs to be safeguarded from the threats that put our environment in harm’s way, with one such threat to our biodiversity being wildlife poaching. Although poaching animals is just one simple action with negative impacts on our biodiversity, it can bring about devastating effects on wildlife. Poaching threatens the security of forestry animals and endangered species. As a result of poaching, the planet’s wildlife population has plummeted by 68% since 1970. Wild animals, such as elephants, rhinos, and certain species of lizards, are facing a growing threat of getting captured from their native habitats or being killed by poachers [1, 2]. Fortunately, with the advancement of technology, discoveries are being made, or improved upon, to reduce wildlife poaching. One example of this is drone technology, which can help to tackle issues that threaten our biodiversity. 

However, despite being useful, such technological solutions are not yet being adopted due to the inconvenience and unfamiliarity with implementation. Ultimately, it all boils down to how effective and convenient technology is to tackle the specific problem discussed in this article — wildlife poaching.

Reasons for Poaching

When the motives of the poachers are being questioned, it is evident that they kill or capture animals to sell them locally or for the global trade in wildlife [2]. In this process, innocent animals are captured alive to be sold or kept as exotic pets. Besides that, some animals are slaughtered for their commercial value to be used as food, jewellery, decor, or in traditional medicine [2]. For example, more than 100,000 African elephants were killed between 2014 and 2017 for their ivory tusks which were then carved into trinkets [2]. Similarly, the meat of apes, snakes, and other bush animals is considered a delicacy in parts of Africa, leading to a rise in the capture of these animals by the locals. 

Although poaching is often associated with selling animals for direct profit, sometimes animals are targeted to prevent them from destroying crops or attacking livestock [2]. This creates another reason for animal poaching aside from the intention to hunt or hurt the animals for trade [2]. Reasons such as poverty can convert protectors into poachers too. While this may be incorrect or wrongful behavior, poverty can cause people to resort to poaching when they have no other means of supporting themselves and their families [4]. As a result, poaching is one of the primary reasons for animals facing the risk of irreversible extinction.

Wildlife Security Jeopardised Amidst Lockdown Border Closures

While poaching has occurred for centuries, the implementation of tightened measures and lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has increased its prevalence [4]. As a result of tightened measures that restricted tourists from traveling and visiting tourist hotspots, the territory of poaching has extended. Previously, the high frequency of human presence protected animals from being hunted by deterring poachers in those areas. For instance, in places like the Okavango Delta and Kruger National Park where lions, leopards, rhinoceroses, elephants and Cape buffalo are on full display, tourists, hunters and guides hired to lead expeditions had a far greater presence than law enforcement in protecting the wildlife [5]. Without the assistance of tourists during lockdowns, the task of monitoring millions of acres of remote and unforgiving wilderness now relies solely on a few thousand rangers, which can be daunting and nerve-wracking [5]. As a result, the lockdown has been a major blow to the safety of animals which were previously being knowingly or unknowingly protected by the presence of an audience (visitors, trainers, forestry officers).

Drone Technology to the Rescue

Figure 2 - Drone in Flight. Reprinted from Ref [5].

For conservationists of wildlife, one of the big challenges is manually going through millions of images and data collected and analysing them without knowing the true number of individual animal populations in the wild [7]. Fortunately, manual work is slowly being overtaken by the rapid advancement of new technologies, such as drones.

Drones are self-propelled airborne devices and are known by various names, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned aerial/aircraft systems (UASs) and remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) [8]. They were first developed for military applications around the time of the Second World War and can be classified based on size, range endurance, and how much carrying power it has [8]. Thus, drones can serve a better purpose than just another way to capture pretty scenery or landscapes. 

Drone technology gives users the valuable ability to bridge the gap between helicopters in the sky and workers on the ground [8]. With a drone, conservationists and environmental researchers can obtain information, data, and imagery that was previously too hard to access at half of the cost [8]. To add to the benefits, the drone methods provide an added safety value when compared to other alternatives. For instance, people who work in remote or dangerous locations don't have to be put in harm’s way if they survey over parts of the dense jungle whilst using drones. Furthermore, a drone can closely track migration movements, monitor the health of animals, and even identify different animal species. This is a great deal for conservationists who can gain valuable data with less hassle of sorting information out by hand [8]. 

In 2004, WildTrack, a non-profit organisation was founded to help develop a footprint identification technique (FIT), which is specialised software made for researchers enabling them to track wildlife populations by monitoring the footprints of the animals [9]. This new technology can identify individual animals with 95% accuracy without getting up close or using camera traps and can figure out how many animals are in the wild and where exactly they are [9]. This method is also being used in dozens of conservation efforts around the world, from monitoring rhinos in Namibia, to Eurasian otters in Portugal, to tigers in Nepal [9]. Together with European drone company SenseFly, they are in the process of developing an AI-powered drone to track footprints and collect information about animals from the air. Thus, this new software combined with drone technology can make wildlife tracking a more effective and feasible option for conservationists [9].

Despite the apparent benefits, drone technology has its drawbacks. Since it is still in its early stages, the regulations that need to be in place to limit environmental impact are still ‘up in the air’ [10, 11].  Furthermore, while UAVs may be considerably smaller and quieter than manned aircraft, wildlife species have been shown to have a physiological response to the presence of a drone overhead [10]. Therefore, concerns such as the disturbance caused by drones to animals need more work and research to be addressed  [10, 11]. 

Nevertheless, as drone technology continues to improve, drones will become more affordable and capable of tracking wildlife. Despite the fact that regulations need to catch up to the technology and more research needs to be done to see the potential disturbances drones could have on wildlife, there is no denying the many advantages drones have over the traditional method of collecting information manually. Concurrently, with the popularity of drone technology rising, applications for their use in wildlife conservation will continue to expand and revolutionise the way conservation and environmental projects are conducted.

Conclusion

In conclusion, drone technology has the potential to aid the tracking of wildlife if utilised to its maximum potential. Since it can also be used to track wildlife during critical periods, such as border closures and lockdowns. The importance of drones must be brought to the attention of people and conservationists. This would help to ensure that protecting life on land (SDG 15) is made feasible and accessible to conservationists. Hence, the advancement of drone technology can assist conservationists in protecting wildlife, making it an easier and potentially more fulfilling job for them to do whilst playing their part to protect our biodiversity!

References

[1] World Wildlife Fund. “Living Planet Report 2020”, Living Planet, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-gb/. [Accessed 26 August 2021].

[2] J. Hall. "Poaching animals, explained", National Geographic, Feb 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/poaching-animals. [Accessed 4 July 2021].

[3] G. De Klerl, “Editorial, Animals,” Unsplash, Nov 2018. [Online]. Available: https://unsplash.com/photos/KsMD_tAdjg0. [Accessed 18 November 2021].

[4] A. Matthews., "The wild animals at risk in lockdown," BBC, May 21, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200520-the-link-between-animals-and-covid-19. [Accessed 4 July 2021].

[5] A. Roth. "Poachers Kill More Rhinos as Corona Virus halts tourism to Africa," NY Times, April 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/science/coronavirus-poaching-rhinos.html. [Accessed 7 July 2021].

[6] J. Blackeye, “Drone,” Unsplash, Sept 2016. [Online]. Available: https://unsplash.com/photos/XYrjl3j7smo. [Accessed 18 November 2021].

[7] M. Pandey., "Drones and live-streams: How tech is changing conservation," BBC, May 28. [Online]. Available: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-57234398. [Accessed 4 July 2021].

[8] C. Sandbrook. "The social implications of using drones for biodiversity conservation" SpringerLink, vol. 44, no. 4, p. 12, Nov 2015. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-015-0714-0.

[9] A.D.L. Garza. "These Researchers Are Using AI Drones to More Safely Track Wildlife," Time, Nov 2019. [Online]. Available: https://time.com/5700671/wildlife-drones-wildtrack/. [Accessed 4 July 2021].

[10] M. P. Brinkman and D. K. Garcelon. "Applying UAV Systems in Wildlife Management,"   Escholarship.org, vol. 29, 2020. Available: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/42s2d8q9.

[11] M. Ketchell. "A guide to using drones to study wildlife: first, do no harm," The Conversation, May 2016. [Online]. Available: https://theconversation.com/a-guide-to-using-drones-to-study-wildlife-first-do-no-harm-57069. [Accessed 4 July 2021].