Environmental & Conservation
Tracking Wildlife With a Custom-built Aerial Data Acquisition Platform
Building a customized, cost-effective, ultra-light aircraft for surveying, filming and tracking animals in wild and remote environments was a project recently profiled in a BBC documentary. Undertaken by Professor Alan Wilson, head of a research department at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, and his team to study cheetahs and their prey in the vast savannahs of southern Africa.
Disruption-free Data Acquisition
Alan Wilson, BSc BVMS PhD MRCVS, heads the Structure and Motion Laboratory (www.rvc.ac.uk/sml), a university research department at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, which is investigating how animals move and how they interact with their physical environment. The research covers a broad range, from how herds of animals move and interact or the dynamics of flocking flight, to how muscles perform in individual species, including how movement is controlled and the limits to performance.
A study was launched to visualize how cheetahs interacted with their terrain. With the hope of revealing new insights into how the animals move, range, hunt or evade capture and interact with the natural environment.
Image: Professor Alan Wilson poses with cheetahs and the Structure and Motion Lab research aircraft while filming a segment for Big Cats with the BBC – Stuart Dunn 2018 ©
A First Attempt
It was the first-ever attempt at such a detailed investigation of animals’ locomotion and ability to cover their terrain, without disturbing their habitat or their natural behavior. Given the vast scale and varied terrain of the study landscape, along with the need to minimize contact with the animals, it was decided that aerial data collection would be the ideal and safest solution.
Imaging from a UAV platform was rejected because this approach has been shown to cause disturbance to wildlife while offering insufficient payload and range to cover such large survey areas. Also, there could be regulatory issues with operating UAVs in national reserve areas. Another option for this project, satellite imaging, would have provided insufficient resolution and at a very high cost.
Given the remote location of this project, it was necessary to develop a solution for aerial data collection, photography, and survey. A customized airplane equipped with a state-of-the-art aerial imaging camera and related technology was used to capture the action of cheetahs.
Image: Cheetas are fitted with movement tracking collars containing a GPS and an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) consisting of a 3D accelerometer, 3D gyro and 3D magnetometer – A Wilson, RVC 2018 ©
3D Imaging Used to Follow Wildlife Movement
Detailed three-dimensional images of the ground were collected, showing vegetation height and density, areas of water, animal tracks, and terrain features such as dips and hollows, termite mounds, mudflats, and features such as fences. These enabled the research team to determine preferred hunting and ranging habitat, information useful also for conservation and land management planning.
The individual study animals were fitted with movement tracking collars containing a GPS and an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) consisting of a 3D accelerometer, 3D gyro, and 3D magnetometer. This equipment enabled the team to map and analyze the routes, maneuvers, and speeds of hunts, and how the predator or prey may have utilized land features to its advantage.
