{"id":4941,"date":"2016-06-09T12:11:40","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T16:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/?p=4941"},"modified":"2016-06-09T12:40:11","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T16:40:11","slug":"call-to-minimize-drone-impact-on-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/call-to-minimize-drone-impact-on-wildlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Call to minimize drone impact on wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4942\" style=\"width: 611px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4942\" class=\" wp-image-4942\" src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Jarod-Hodgson-UAV-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Ecologist Jarrod Hodgson launches a fixed-wing UAV on Australia's sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island. (Photo courtesy of Jarrod Hodgson via EurekAlert!)\" width=\"601\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Jarod-Hodgson-UAV-1024x682.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Jarod-Hodgson-UAV-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Jarod-Hodgson-UAV.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 601px) 100vw, 601px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4942\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ecologist Jarrod Hodgson launches a fixed-wing UAV on Australia&#8217;s sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island. (Photo courtesy of Jarrod Hodgson <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/multimedia\/pub\/115775.php\">via EurekAlert!<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increasingly, researchers are turning to drones, or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to study animals and ecosystems. But questions remain about any effect these drones might be having on wildlife. \u00a0While they say there is not yet enough scientific evidence to show the impact of drones on wildlife, two researchers believe there is enough information to develop a suite of best practices for minimizing the impact on, and ensuring the ethical treatment of, wild animals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The researchers from the Unmanned Research Aircraft Facility at the University of Adelaide<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">propose a series of recommendations until enough data has been collected to justify the creation of\u00a0prescriptive policies for the use of drones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They provide the following recommendations: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adopting the precautionary principle in lieu of evidence, especially if the species or habitat is ecologically sensitive or endangered.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using the animal ethics process of associated institutions to provide oversight for UAV-derived animal observations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engaging in flight practices that minimize possible disturbances to wildlife.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monitoring the physiological stress levels and tracking the displacement of animals under drone observation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ceasing UAV operations if they are excessively disruptive to animals.<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Authors:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jarrod C. Hodgson, Lian Pin Koh<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Corresponding author:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jarrod C. Hodgson, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cell.com\/current-biology\/abstract\/S0960-9822(16)30318-9?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982216303189%3Fshowall%3Dtrue\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Original paper<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, published on May 23, 2016 in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Current Biology.<\/span><\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Increasingly, researchers are turning to drones, or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to study animals and ecosystems. But questions remain about any effect these drones might be having on wildlife. \u00a0While they say there is not yet enough scientific evidence to show the impact of drones on wildlife, two researchers believe there is enough information to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[2038,2624,2623],"class_list":["post-4941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paper-of-interest","tag-drones","tag-university-of-adelaide","tag-unmanned-aerial-vehicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Jarod-Hodgson-UAV.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4DqbN-1hH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4941"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4983,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4941\/revisions\/4983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}