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In 2016 the conservation charity Fauna & Flora International
launched a drone mission in the Koh Rong Archipelago, which is
a string of islands off the coast of Cambodia. Photography cap-
tured during the drone mission clearly showed a sea grass habitat
that had never before been charted. Sea
grasses are flowering aquatic plants that
can form thick, dense underwater mead-
ows. These meadows serve as shallow
water habitats and feeding grounds for a
wide and diverse variety of species, includ-
ing sea horses, sea turtles, marine mam-
mals known as dugongs, numerous types
of fish, and countless others.
Seagrass habitats are threatened by a number of human ac-
tions, including destructive fishing methods, unsustainable de-
velopment, and pollution. Fauna & Flora researchers plan to use
the photographs collected by drones to create habitat maps and
identify areas that need more research and ultimately greater
protection. “They will help us to conserve and monitor important
habitats such as coral reefs, seagrass, and mangroves,” says
Nhem Vanna of the Cambodian Fisheries Administration. “This
new technology will save us time while allowing us to conduct
new research in Cambodia.”
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Far away from Cambodia, another country where scientists
are using drones for research is Mexico, which is a winter home
for monarch butterflies. Every winter, tens of millions of butterflies
migrate there from Canada and the United States. The monarchs
take shelter in fir and pine trees, such as those at the Monarch
Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacán, Mexico. These tree-
top habitats are critical to the butterflies’ survival, which appears
bleaker each year. Scientists who study monarch butterflies say
that their population has declined more than 90 percent in the
past several decades. They are threatened with extinction—and
that is why a 2015 discovery made by drone photography was
especially disturbing to wildlife scientists.
In flying over the reserve, the drone captured images of wide-
spread deforestation. Researchers who examined the photos
found that approximately 25 acres (10 ha) of trees vital to monarch
WORDS IN
CONTEXT
archipelago
A group of islands.
