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It did return, however. And even though the camera produced
only blurred images of orangutan nests, Koh and Wich were en-
thusiastic about their first drone mission. They believed the blurry
photos were merely an indication that adjustments were needed
to compensate for the vibration of the drone’s motors. Convinced
that they could fix these bugs, they left Sumatra and made plans
for another drone mission later in the year.
In September 2012 Koh and Wich returned to the jungle for
their second drone launch. Standing in the scorching Sumatran
sun, they let the drone go and watched it fly away. “At the flick of a
switch on the radio transmitter and a gentle toss,” they write, “the
Conservation Drone took off into the wind.”
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About ten minutes
later they spotted the drone in the distance flying back toward
them. When it landed, they carried it to their campsite and began
downloading the camera’s images to a laptop computer.
The pictures showed the tops of the rain forest canopy in vivid
detail. And what Koh and Wich saw in those photos were broken
and bent branches in the treetops, which they knew were charac-
teristic of an orangutan nest. “And then we spotted another nest,
and yet another,”
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they write. Finally they had crisp, clear photos of
orangutan nests, which they never had before. Motivated by what
they had achieved with drones, the duo went on to found a group
called Conservation Drones at the University of Adelaide in Austra-
lia. The group promotes the use of drone technology in wildlife re-
search, particularly in developing countries where human-induced
habitat loss is such an urgent problem.
Surveying Habitats from Above
The use of drones to study wildlife habitats has grown significant-
ly in the years since Koh and Wich launched their first missions
in Sumatra. Scientists throughout the world are discovering the
advantages of using drones for all kinds of research. One scien-
tist who is especially enthusiastic about the many possibilities of
drones is David Bird, a wildlife biologist from Montreal, Canada.
“I feel like a pioneer who’s on the crest of a wave with ground-
breaking technology,”
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says Bird, who has used drones to study
seabirds and their habitats.
