Remote-controlled plane as a potent tool for conservation

The Orangutan Conservancy, and the Denver Zoo, Lian Pin Koh, an ecologist at the University of Zurich, and Serge Wich of the Great Ape Trust have devised an ingenious conservation drone equipped with cameras, sensors and GPS. The drone cost less than $2,000 and the user pre-programs each mission on a laptop computer. It offers a cost-effective way of counting wildlife over difficult terrain. The imagery is of far higher resolution than from satellites.

The researchers have put the drone to effective use to map deforestation and count orangutans in North Sumatra.

The drone certainly will be an effective conservation tool in difficult terrain. Tahrcountry exhorts conservationists to go in for this new tool and improve its functioning. I am very excited.

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