Wildlife research and management methods in the 21st century: Where do unmanned aircraft fit in?

TLDR

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have become increasingly diverse tools in wildlife science, enabling high‑resolution optical surveys, telemetry tracking, and habitat monitoring, especially in hard‑to‑access or sensitive areas, and their continued technological progress suggests untapped potential. This review surveys the primary literature on UAS applications in wildlife science and related fields. The authors conduct a systematic review of wildlife science literature since 2000 to identify trends and predict where UAS will make significant future contributions.

Abstract

Since the turn of the century, emerging unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have found increasingly diverse applications in wildlife science as convenient, very high-resolution remote sensing devices. Achieved or conceptualized applications include optical surveying and observation of animals, autonomous wildlife telemetry tracking, and habitat research and monitoring. As the technology continues to progress and interest from the wildlife science community grows, there may yet be much untapped potential for UAS to contribute to the discipline. We present a review of the published primary literature on the application of UAS in wildlife science and related fields. This is followed by a systematic review of the broader wildlife science literature published since the turn of the century to assess where UAS are likely to make important contributions going forward based on the trends that have emerged thus far. UAS, in particular small lightweight models, are generally well suited for collecting data at an intermediate spatial scale between what is easily coverable on the ground and what is economically coverable with conventional aircraft. They are particularly useful for monitoring wildlife and habitats in places that are difficult to access or navigate from the ground, as well as approaching sensitive or aggressive species.