How many ducks are in this picture? Image supplied by University of Adelaide.

A study carried out by the University of Adelaide proves that using drones for wildlife monitoring outperforms traditional counting methods.

Utilising a few thousand rubber ducks, a group of experienced wildlife spotters and a drone, the research team demonstrated that counting wildlife using drones is more accurate than human-only counting techniques. Drones have been increasingly used to assist with conducting surveys of wild animal populations, including nesting birds, seals and elephants.

Jarrod Hodgson, lead author of the study, said that the accuracy of using drones for this purpose had not been proven until now. Colonies of replica birds were created on an Adelaide beach, and experienced wildlife spotters faced off against a human team who would attempt to count individuals from images captured by UAV.

“We needed to test the technology where we knew the correct answer. We couldn’t use wild animals because we could never be sure of the real number of individuals present,” Mr. Hodgson said.

“We found it is more accurate and more precise to have people count birds from the drone imagery than to do it on location.”

The researchers also tested an automated counting algorithm to process the UAV-derived photography against human counters, which revealed a comparable counting accuracy.

“With so many animals across the world facing extinction, our need for accurate wildlife data has never been greater,” Mr Hodgson said. “Accurate monitoring can detect small changes in animal numbers. That is important because if we had to wait for a big shift in those numbers to notice the decline, it might be too late to conserve a threatened species.”

“Our results show that monitoring animals with drones produces better data that we can use to proactively manage wildlife.”

Going under the hashtag #EpicDuckChallenge, the study was published today in the British Ecological Society journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution. The research paper was co-authored by scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division, the University of Tasmania and Monash University.

Below is an image of a real-life Crested Tern colony – the species of seabird that was replicated in the experiment. Click on the image to view it full size.

Image supplied by University of Adelaide.