Application of Unmanned Systems to Wildlife Research and Management
(Room 265-268)
03 May 16
1:30 PM
-
3:00 PM
Speaker(s):
Jeff Sloan, UAS National Project Office Lead, U.S. Geological Survey; Todd Jacobs, Mr. Jacobs, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration; John Petersen, Chairman, The Charles A. & Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation; Katie Sweeney, Fish Biologist, Alaska Ecosystem Program; David Bird, Professor, McGill University
One area that continues to show great potential for the applications of UVS and associated markets is wildlife research and management. Applications being carried out in various regions of the world today include monitoring breeding, wintering and migrating populations of colonially nesting birds, spawning salmon and orangutans, mapping breeding habitat of endangered species, tracking threatened caribou and polar bears in the far north, examining nest contents of raptorial birds breeding in inaccessible locations, and deterring poachers in Africa. The objectives of the proposed 60-min non-technical presentation are to explore the latest applications of UVS of all types and sizes and to discuss the needs of today’s wildlife biologists and managers in terms of costs, size, practicality in the field, regulations, etc. Specifically, the talk will review the contributions of the major players in the world using UVS to study wildlife, highlight the research contributions of Dr. Bird and his various graduate students and collaborators over the last 9 years, and discuss the various challenges, both technical and non-technical, facing wildlife biologists attempting to use UVS to study wildlife in recent years.