Drones And Animal Conservation

Drones have a tendency to stress out animals when they fly low in their habitat. However the animal conservation activists have found drones useful in their efforts to keep tabs on the local wildlife population, figuring out environment changes, as well as a deeper understanding of animal behavior.

A new study published in Conservation Physiology  has tried to figure out if the benefits of using drones outweigh the stress that the animals feel with the drones flying close to them. The study used heart monitors to gauge stress in American black bears over a four week period. The idea was to see if the bears could be habituated to the drones flying around their habitat.

Implanted cardiac biologgers were used by the research team on a captive section of five bears. The team measured the heart rate of these five captive bears before and after the drone flights were taken. The pre-flight baseline data was about 41 beats per minute and the heart rates nearly quadrupled at 162 beats per minute after the drones went by.

The science experiment showed the stress caused to the bears, however when the drones continued to fly after short breaks, it was seen that the heart rate was not quite as elevated as it used to be. Basically the bears had begun to get used to the drones.