A bespoke low‐cost system for radio tracking animals using multi‐rotor and fixed‐wing unmanned aerial vehicles

Abstract

The spatial and temporal distribution of animals is frequently a foundation for understanding biological phenomena within physiological, behavioural and ecological studies (Kays, Crofoot, Jetz, & Wikelski, 2015). The increased utilization of GPS in recent years has led to refinement in the achievable accuracy of animal tracking devices, and reductions in the labour required to operate them. However, with this has come an increase in cost which often corresponds to low numbers of animals being tracked, and the assumption that the positional information of a subset of individuals is representative of whole herd/group movements. Whilst radio-frequency (RF) tags cannot provide the continuous tracking capability of GPSequipped trackers, they are inexpensive and can be extremely small and lightweight, allowing large number of animals to be tracked albeit at lower spatial precision and frequency.

Animal board invited review: Grassland-based livestock farming and biodiversity

“…Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs; drones) have facilitated the emergence of aerial-based approaches to studying animal movements. The concept of low-cost UAV-based radio tracking has been proven on livestock ( Roberts et al, 2020 ), as has the use of aerial imagery to detect animals ( Sarwar et al, 2021 , Sant'Ana et al, 2022 ). Aside from tracking applications, the more conventional use of UAV-derived imagery in vegetation analysis has recently progressed from simple broad habitat classifications, to using high-resolution imagery for the identification of specific plant species ( Lu and He, 2017 , Gallmann et al, 2022 ).…”

Evaluation of low‐cost consumer‐grade UAVs for conducting comprehensive high‐frequency population censuses of hippopotamus populations

“…Applications for unmanned aerial systems (UASs) in wildlife research are increasing, particularly considering their benefit for effective monitoring and managing of species of conservation importance in areas and countries with budgetary limitations (Bevan et al, 2018; Ezat, Fritsch, & Downs, 2018; Hahn et al, 2017; Linchant, Lisein, Semeki, Lejeune, & Vermeulen, 2015; Roberts et al, 2020). Population censuses are utilized by conservation area managers as an overarching indication of species and ecosystem health (Dice, 1938; Lancia, Kendall, Pollock, & Nichols, 2005).…”