Date: March 1, 2019
Source: Queensland University of Technology
QUT
researchers have developed an innovative method for detecting koala populations
using drones and infrared imaging that is more reliable and less invasive than
traditional animal population monitoring techniques.
In the
study, published in Nature journal Scientific Reports, the researchers
detail the technique that involves an algorithm for locating the koalas using
drones that can detect heat signatures.
The
technique has great potential to improve management of koala populations and
other threatened species as well as being used to detect invasive species.
Dr Grant
Hamilton, from QUT's School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences,
co-authored the study with PhD student Evangeline Corcoran and Dr Simon Denman
from QUT, and John Hanger and Bree Wilson from Endeavour Veterinary Ecology.
Dr
Hamilton said the researchers were able to correlate the detection of koalas
from the air using ground surveys of tracked radio-collared koalas in Petrie,
Queensland.
The
system uses infrared imaging to detect the heat signals of the koala despite
the canopy coverage of the eucalyptus trees.
"Nobody
else has really managed to get good results anywhere in the world in a habitat
this complex and in these kinds of numbers," Dr Hamilton said.
Other
animal population detection systems by drones have been used in fairly simple
scenarios such as looking for seals on a beach or animals on the savannah.
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