Zhang, Hui;
Turvey, Samuel T;
Pandey, Shree P;
Song, Xiqiang;
Sun, Zhongyu;
Wang, Nan;
(2023)
Commercial drones can provide accurate and effective monitoring of the world’s rarest primate.
Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation
10.1002/rse2.341.
(In press).
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Abstract
The recently established Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park has designated the Hainan gibbon (Nomascus hainanus) as its flagship species, providing new hope for recovery of the last surviving population of the world's rarest primate. However, current monitoring methods are labour-intensive and only conducted for discrete periods, meaning that detailed information is still lacking on key Hainan gibbon population parameters (such as movement patterns, sleeping site selection and home range size). Alternative monitoring techniques are therefore necessary to supplement traditional methods and provide more accurate estimates of population parameters. Here, we tested whether flying two drones (DJI MAVIC2 Enterprise Advanced), one in the understory and the other above the canopy, could provide new information on Hainan gibbon biology and ecology. During a total of 60 flights, we successfully collected clear RGB and thermal infrared footage of Hainan gibbons. These data provide new baseline information on gibbon movement within the understory and the canopy, their surface body temperatures (23.0–34.7°C), and their movement area during the survey period. The low cost of this equipment could reduce the running costs for Hainan gibbon monitoring. Although drone-based monitoring has some limitations (e.g. monitoring efficiency could be affected by variation in forest structure and gibbon group size), this new method could complement existing monitoring approaches. Drone-based monitoring, using multiple drones and a real-time transmission network, could therefore contribute further towards Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park's conservation planning for this Critically Endangered primate.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Commercial drones can provide accurate and effective monitoring of the world’s rarest primate |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/rse2.341 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.341 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Zoological Society of London. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
| Keywords: | Conservation technology; drone; Hainan gibbon; monitoring methods; RGB footage; thermal infrared footage |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10170923 |
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