Unmanned Aircraft Systems complement biologging in spatial ecology studies

Ecology and Evolution

Margarita Mulero-Pázmány¹  Jose Ángel Barasona²  Pelayo Acevedo²  Joaquín Vicente² 

[1] Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Doñana Biological Station, CSIC, Seville, Spain;Sabio IREC, National Wildlife Research Institute (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), IREC. Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, Ciudad Real, Spain

关键词: Abundance modeling;    animal monitoring;    biologging;    cattle;    drones;    GPS‐GSM collars;    Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems;    spatial distribution;    Unmanned Aircraft Systems;   

DOI  :  10.1002/ece3.1744

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

The knowledge about the spatial ecology and distribution of organisms is important for both basic and applied science. Biologging is one of the most popular methods for obtaining information about spatial distribution of animals, but requires capturing the animals and is often limited by costs and data retrieval. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have proven their efficacy for wildlife surveillance and habitat monitoring, but their potential contribution to the prediction of animal distribution patterns and abundance has not been thoroughly evaluated. In this study, we assess the usefulness of UAS overflights to (1) get data to model the distribution of free-ranging cattle for a comparison with results obtained from biologged (GPS-GSM collared) cattle and (2) predict species densities for a comparison with actual density in a protected area. UAS and biologging derived data models provided similar distribution patterns. Predictions from the UAS model overestimated cattle densities, which may be associated with higher aggregated distributions of this species. Overall, while the particular researcher interests and species characteristics will influence the method of choice for each study, we demonstrate here that UAS constitute a noninvasive methodology able to provide accurate spatial data useful for ecological research, wildlife management and rangeland planning.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.