Using unmanned aerial vehicles with thermal-image acquisition cameras for animal surveys: a case study on the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey in the Qinling Mountains

Abstract

Following significant developments in technology, alternative devices have been applied in fieldwork for animal and plant surveys. Thermal-image acquisition cameras installed on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used in animal surveys in the wilderness. This article demonstrates an example of how UAVs can be used in high mountainous regions, presenting a case study on the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey with a detection rate of 65.19% for positive individual identification. It also presents a model that can prospectively predict population size for a given animal species, which is based on combined initial work using UAVs and traditional surveys on the ground. A great potential advantage of UAVs is significantly shortening survey procedures, particularly for areas with high mountains and plateaus, such as the Himalayas, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Hengduan Mountains, the Yunnan-Gui Plateau and Qinling Mountains in China, where carrying out a traditional survey is extremely difficult, so that species and population surveys, particularly for critically endangered animals, are largely absent. This lack of data has impacted the management of endangered animals as well as the formulation and amendment of conservation strategies.

Keywords: arboreal primates; mountainous regions; population size assessment; thermal image; unmanned aerial vehicles.