This paper describes a field study that examined the effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in anti-poaching enforcement in parks and game reserves. In the field study, a UAV attempted to spot mock poachers while the mock poachers tried to spot the UAV. The field study was conducted at N/a’an ku sê, an operational game reserve in the central region of Namibia. In total, 118 trials were completed, providing 236 UAV-poacher interdiction scenarios. Of these, 198 were during the day, 152 with a quadcopter and 46 with a fixed-wing. Live spotting success during the day varied due to the hiding behavior of the mock poachers, with the highest and lowest success rates of spotting being 86% for poachers in the open and 25% for poachers hiding under canopy cover. The UAVs were demonstrated to be a potentially effective tool for anti-poaching patrol and interdiction, in part, because of their ability to spot poachers. The pursuit of integrating the UAV into current anti-poaching patrol and interdiction efforts in arid savanna landscapes is strongly recommended.

This article tests the hypothesis that “the likelihood that the species will react and level at which they do to the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is related to the altitude, number of passes, sound intensity, type of UAV, takeoff distance, and species.” This paper examined the behavioral responses of a group of free ranging ungulate species (Oryx, Kudu, Springbok, Giraffe, Eland, Hartebeest, and Impala) found in an animal reserve in Namibia to the presence of different in-flight UAV models. The study included 397 passes (trials) over 99 flights at altitudes ranging from 15 to 55 meters in three categories of response level: No response, Alert, and Movement. The ungulates were unhabituated to the UAVs and the study was conducted in the presence of stress-inducing events that occur naturally in the environment. Certain species were found to be more reactive than others, in addition to several displaying different response levels in single or mixed herd environments. Zebras were found to be less responsive in mixed herd environments while Oryx were present, as compared to when the Oryx were not; suggesting that some species may respond based on other species perception of threat or their relative fitness levels. The UAVs also produced inconsistent response rates between movement and alert behavior. The reference vehicle, Phantom 3 was much more likely than the Mavic to induce an alert response, while both having similar probabilities of inducing a movement response. Furthermore, the Custom X8 showed significantly more alert and movement responses than the other UAVs. This shows there may be several aspects to the UAVs that affect the responses of the ungulates. For instance, the sound intensity may alert the species more often, but close proximity may induce a movement response. More generally, the data shows that when the UAV is flying above 50 meters and has a measured sound intensity below 50 dB, the likelihood of inducing a movement response on an ungulate species is below 6% regardless of the vehicle on the first pass over the animals. Additionally, with each subsequent pass the likelihood of response dropped by approximately 20 percent. The results suggest a stronger correlation between flight altitude and response across the different ungulates, and the evidence suggests rapid habituation to the UAVs.

This paper tests the hypothesis that ungulate-UAV interaction depends strongly on flight altitude, that there may be a lowest altitude range for which the ungulates are not exceedingly disturbed, dictating a practically achievable level of discernibility in flight observation. This question strongly influences the future viability of the UAV in the study and protection of the ungulates in Africa’s arid savanna. This paper examined the behavioral responses of a group of free ranging ungulate species (Oryx, Kudu, Springbok, Giraffe, Eland, Hartebeest, and Impala) found in an animal reserve in Namibia to the presence of different in-flight UAV models. The study included 99 flights (337 passes) at altitudes ranging from 15 to 55 meters. The ungulates were unhabituated to the UAVs and the study was conducted in the presence of stress-inducing events that occur naturally in the environment. The results suggest strong correlations between flight altitude and response across the different ungulates and anecdotal evidence suggests in some cases rapid habituation to the UAVs.