Drones Revolutionising Conservation: A Glimpse into New Zealand's Pioneering Efforts

 Drones have the potential to transform modern conservation

The Predator-Free Mackenzie Basin Project: Drones as Pest Control Pioneers

We typically don’t associate drones with conservation. Or if we do, it's only to film some exotic animal for a David Attenborough documentary. We certainly don’t associate drones with any meaningful aspect of conservation work. What if drones could be used to rediscover species previously thought to be extinct? What if they could be used as a tool to restore at-risk habitats or assist in the genetic recovery of endangered species? In short, what if drones could become one of our greatest allies in modern conservation? Let me take you to New Zealand’s South Island, where a group of pioneers is making that a reality.

Let's start with the Predator-Free Mackenzie Basin Project. The Mackenzie Basin is a 100km alpine valley situated in the heart of the Southern Alps, best known as the home to Aoraki/Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand. It’s a pristine alpine environment with windswept mountains, rare alpine plants, and giant glaciers dotting the vast landscape. It is here, away from the rest of the world, that many critically endangered species have made their last stands.

Among those calling the Mackenzie Basin home is the Black Stilt, a rare wading bird that occupies high-country rivers. In this harsh environment, less than two hundred remain, hanging on by a thread. Similarly, Kea, the world's only alpine parrot, calls the Mackenzie Basin home. Once the heartland of the species, the population is in free fall. Just a few thousand remain, and it may vanish from the basin within fifteen years.

Both the Black Stilt and Kea are unique to New Zealand. More than four hundred species are endemic to our shores; eighty percent of these are under threat. The key cause of this is pressure from introduced pests. Hunting from predators such as Cats, Ferrets, and Stoats decimates populations. These predators can range from sea level to several thousand meters in elevation, meaning there are few safe havens or refuges for our native species.

Hares and rabbits compete with our native animals for food. In the right conditions, they can reach plague numbers, stripping the landscape of vital vegetation. This can cause both bird populations to decline and serve erosion. Alpine habitats tend to be extremely sensitive to change, and they often take a long time to recover from damage. Browsing animals such as Deer, pigs, and goats can render an alpine habitat unliveable for decades. Even small rodents such as Rats, Mice, and Hedgehogs can cause widespread environmental devastation. They have been observed to devastate bird populations through the predation of eggs and young.

Drones are being used to assist in Hare Control

Drones as Conservation Allies: A Closer Look at Te Manahuna Aoraki Initiative

Te Manahuna Aoraki is a multi-agency program with an ambitious goal. They wish to see the Mackenzie Basin pest-free by 2040. It’s part of a wider nationwide initiative to see New Zealand Predator-Free by 2050. The task itself is challenging; introduced pests tend to be notoriously secretive and hard to eradicate. Cats and stoats are wide-ranging animals that are hard to detect in low numbers. Intensive control efforts can all be for naught if a few animals survive and repopulate the Basin. Recently, trail cameras have found that areas declared pest-free still have stoats in them.

A solution currently being implemented, with a degree of effectiveness, is the use of sniffer dogs to catch undetected animals. Julius, a conservation dog, was recently able to locate twenty cats that had been missed by traditional control methods. However, dogs are expensive to both train and keep in the field. Nor are they suitable to be used at scale. At the moment, just five sniffer dogs are in service nationwide, not enough to meet demand.

 Te Manahuna Aoraki Initiative is near Mount Cook our largest mountain

Strategic Solutions: Using Drones to Combat Introduced Pests in Alpine Environments

They say necessity is the mother of invention. Certainly, New Zealanders have never been afraid of taking some number eight wire and seeing what they can make with it. The Mackenzie Basin Project has tried something revolutionary and yet simple. Why not harness drones to do the work for you? A drone equipped with thermal imaging can fulfill the same role as a sniffer dog in a fraction of the time. Programmed with artificial intelligence, it can identify target and non-target species, simply notifying a controller on the ground when it locates a pest. The controller can then move in and humanely dispatch it.

While there are limitations to the technology, initial trials have been successful. Hares were chosen as the target animal due to their inability to burrow. It has been suggested that some burrowing animals, such as rabbits and stoats, may still be able to avoid detection underground. Though it is hoped that within a few years advances in thermal imaging will solve this problem. Hares spend their entire lives above ground, making them the ideal initial target species.

The results were impressive; sixteen hares were located and destroyed in an area previously believed to be pest-free. Excitingly, the trial also helped provide valuable data on how and why some hares evade detection during control operations. The addition of data from drones allows us the opportunity to fine-tune our pest control, making it a less costly and time-consuming endeavor. Looking forward, if burrowing animals can be located with thermal imaging, it might further reduce man-hours in the field by a third.

In the short term, there is no shortage of uses for drone technology. Feral cats are a widespread threat across New Zealand. It's estimated that more than a million feral cats roam our forests and national parks. They're an apex predator, and while less widespread than stoats, individually do more damage. Stewart Island Kakapo were nearly wiped out by feral cats in just five years in the 1980s. The island is no longer considered suitable for Kakapo due to the presence of cats. Presently, it is considered too vast for cat control operations to be a success. However, drones in partnership with traditional control methods could change that.

That's just the beginning. Drones could also be a low-cost way of herd control. Large ungulates such as Deer, Pigs, and goats are hard to eradicate and survey. Drones could be used both to determine population density and track down survivors of control operations. It's hoped that Drones could be used to help remove Deer from Northland and pigs from Auckland Island.

Drones could be a low cost form of Pest Control

Beyond Borders : Transforming Conservation Strategies

Population counts are an exciting aspect of drone technology. It opens doors for us to undertake national surveys of birds previously considered too hard to study. We have no idea what our national Kea Population is, nor that of Kaka, Fiordland Crested Penguin, and Kākāriki. A single drone programmed with Artificial intelligence and thermal imaging could remotely do thousands of man-hours of work, all without ever needing people in the field.

Much of New Zealand has not been explored properly. Nor have we discovered all of our wildlife. On average, we are discovering two new species of Lizard a year. Recently, a new species of Petrel was discovered off the coast of Whenua Hou/Codfish Island. Could there be other birds, as yet unknown to science in our country?

We're confident that remnant bird populations remain yet to be discovered, particularly those of several critically endangered species. Moreover, drones might be the key to finally determining if several species, considered 'data deficient,' still exist; these include the Greater Short Tailed Bat, South Island Brown Teal, and South Island Kokako. Presently, it's simply too expensive to undertake years of groundwork, surveying our national parks, to resolve these questions. Drones could change all that.

We don't really know how many Kaka live in New Zealand

Harnessing Drones for Precision Conservation: The Future of Wildlife Management

Nationwide, fewer than 450 Takahe remain across two wild sites: one in Nelson and one in Eastern Fiordland. Small numbers of Takahe persist elsewhere in Fiordland but are unable to be tracked due to a lack of funding. These birds are likely to have been isolated from the main population for at least thirty years and are likely genetically distinct. Presently, Takahe are experiencing a severe genetic bottleneck, resulting in high infertility and loss of genetic fitness. Depending on how you interpret the data, there may be anywhere from a few dozen to a hundred additional Takahe across Fiordland. The reintroduction of these genes to the population could be the determining factor in helping them survive this bottleneck.

Unfortunately, it would take thousands of man-hours to scratch the surface of this problem. Historically, there are a lot of reports of Takahe from the Stuart Mountains, south of the Milford Track. Traditionally, this would seem to suggest that this would be the best place to focus our efforts.

But does this actually indicate there's a large population of Takahe there? Or that reports are skewed, due to more people using the area? Is the answer actually the more remote regions of Western Fiordland? Or is Southern Fiordland the solution? Searching the wrong location could cost millions of dollars and be fruitless; not acting could lose us these birds forever.

Drones have the potential to solve problems like these. Rather than making costly management decisions based on limited data, a drone can be sent out into the field for a fraction of the cost and provide us with an answer.

Drones could assist with critically endangered bird management 

Unlocking Conservation Mysteries: Drones and Rare Species Discovery

Once again though, this is only the beginning. Birds that nest underground may soon be within our reach too. The recent discovery of a genetically distinct population of Haast Tokoeka in South Westland was a great boost for the critically endangered species. Drones might be able to find other such populations.

In the last twenty years, three parties have provided reports of Kakapo calls in the Milford Catchment, including a bird caught on an audio recorder in 2012. In 1999, bat calls were picked up off the coast of Stewart Island, suggesting that the thought-to-be-extinct Greater Short Tailed Bat may still exist.

Similarly, there have been three reports of Kakapo calls in the Milford Catchment in the last fifteen years. Off the coast of Stewart Island, bat calls have been picked up suggesting that a population of Greater Short Tailed Bats may yet exist in the wilderness there.

Sadly, following up these reports is not a priority, mostly due to the cost of the months or years of fieldwork. As is the case with Takahe, the Department of Conservation has a limited budget and would rather focus that money on guaranteed projects.

Drones would make searching vast wilderness areas easier

Future Possibilities: Drones, Genetic Testing, and Revolutionizing Bird Conservation in New Zealand

The recent development of genetic testing of water could be a game-changer. We now have a way to identify the DNA of all animals using a body of water using genetic testing. It's a revolutionary form of technology that could transform how we approach conservation. Drones could now be sent into remote regions to take water samples. These samples could then be analyzed for their DNA content. If a rare or endangered animal is using the river or stream, we will be able to identify it. From there, a drone can be sent back into the area and, using a combination of artificial intelligence and thermal imaging, identify the home range of the bird in question. A team could then move in and translocate it to safety with relative ease.

Genetic testing would finally allow us to put to bed questions about the continued existence of extinct species like the Bush Wren, Greater Short Tailed Bat, and South Island Kokako. All three have been presumed to be extinct since the 1960s. Though in all three cases, reports have persisted into the modern era. Most notably, the South Island Kokako, which has had in excess of three hundred reports in the last five years alone.

It might sound like science fiction, but emerging technology holds some extremely exciting possibilities for our native bird conservation!

The South Island Brown Teal is a key species that could be searched for with drones.

Enjoy this style of investigative Journalism?

Support us by purchasing from our online store which allows us to devote more time to stories like this.