scientist have deployed all kinds of technology to analyze wildlife , from artificial satellite tag and collar to theater of operations cameras . Now , a fresh trial has shown that they could practice remote-controlled aerial vehicles ( UAVs ) to study wildlife population , too . For the first sentence , scientists from NOAA Fisheries and the Vancouver Aquarium used a television camera - equip UAV to take gorgeous , straight - down photograph of northerly house physician killer hulk , animals that swim in the waters near Vancouver Island , British Columbia . Theirpaperwas late publish in theJournal of Unmanned Vehicles .
you may tell a lot about a whale from a pic . From this picture , for exemplar , scientists were capable to mold that the top female person " appears tight-fitting and in hapless condition , " while the female in the middle seem healthy . The giant at the bottom of the photo is significant — you’re able to severalize because her body bulges near the ribcage . Photo reference : NOAA , Vancouver Aquarium
They flew a hexacopter UAV ( key out for its six rotor blades ) about 100 feet above the whales so they would n’t mark its presence . When heavyweight were in the frame , the cowcatcher used a remote link to trigger the seizure ofstill figure of speech on the camera ’s flashmemory . The UAV was outfit with both a mellow - resolution digital camera — which provide enough item that the scientists could secernate between the unique markings on individual whales — and a pressure altimeter , which enjoin them the precise altitude of the UAV . Combining this data with the focal length of the camera lens allowed them to calculate the size of objects to an accuracy of 5 centimeters .
Photo credit : NOAA , Vancouver Aquarium
“ Because the picture resolution is so great , ” John Durban , a marine mammal ecologist with NOAA Fisheries , said , “ we can monitor very little change in an animal ’s condition from year to yr , ” Durban said .
The UAV flew a total of 60 successful missions last year , snatch exposure that are n’t just beautiful , but useful too , leave scientists to “ make very exact measurements from them , ” Durban said . “ We ca n’t put a whale on a scale , but we can use aerial image to analyse their body condition — basically , how fat or skinny they are . ”
By try the photos , scientists can cypher out ( among other thing ) if the whales are eat enough ; these northern whales , which are categorized as threatened under Canada ’s Species At Risk Act , eat mostly Chinook salmon . The dwindling numbers of Chinook could be adversely affecting the whale universe .
Scientists have used man aircraft to do this variety of affair for decades , but UAVs ply a routine of benefits : They ’re less expensive to fly , can take off from belittled vessels , and are much quieter than manned planes , allow scientist to observe the whales without nark them .
Two killer whale giant playfully butt head . Photo course credit : NOAA , Vancouver Aquarium
Researchers convey a summer nose count annually to define how many whale have die . " But mortality is a pretty coarse measure of how well the universe is doing because the problem , if there is one , has already occurred,“Durban say on the NOAA Fisheries web log . The UAV , however , " can give us a more sore measure that we might be able-bodied to respond to before whales die . "
