Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems (drones) assayed to fight rhinoceros poaching in Africa

Seville, Spain, Doñana Biological Station, CSIC. January 8th, 2014.

A team led by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has used remote piloted systems in South Africa with the aim of assessing their capabilities in detecting poachers who are decimating rhinoceros populations to collect their horns.

In recent years there has been an alarming increase in rhinoceros poaching, with around a thousand animals killed in 2013 in South Africa, the country hosting more individuals worldwide. This is the main threat to the conservation of both white (Ceratotherium simum) and black (Diceros bicornis) rhinoceros, classified by the UICN as near threatened and critically endangered, respectively.

Horn use as traditional medicine, mostly in Asian countries, is the main cause of poaching. Due to the high demand and the illegal nature of the trade, the prices fetched in the black market are very high. This is a temptation for the most disadvantaged sectors of the population, who can get the equivalent of several years of salary for a single horn.

The CSIC team visited South Africa in August 2012 with five small aircrafts (less than 2m wingspan) that require only a small area cleared of vegetation for takeoff and landing, which enables immediate deployment. Their cost is low and their operation is simple, allowing conservation agencies and security companies to incorporate them into their anti poaching patrols immediately. Furthermore, these are electric aircrafts, permitting silent missions, which do not disturb wildlife and make it difficult their detection by poachers.

The work was developed in collaboration with two South African research centers: Center for Wildlife Management (University of Pretoria), and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research CSIR, and with the support of a major private security company. The flights were conducted on private farms that still have a well-preserved rhinoceros population in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

The paper describes the use of these aircraft equipped with still cameras and HD video in the visible spectrum and with a video camera in the thermal spectrum that enables working at night. The systems were used to locate rhinoceros, intruders and to monitor the fences that poachers use for entering the farms. The authors analyzed the factors affecting RPAS operations such as the influence of vegetation type, the time of day in which these systems are more effective or the optimal height for the flight, and also describe their limitations, concluding with proposals for optimizing their use.

This study demonstrates that drones can be a useful tool for monitoring sensitive areas, especially those with difficult access, to complement anti poaching operations and as a complementary method for the investigation of the ecology of the rhinoceros.

The work was supported by the Junta de Andalucía through AEROMAB excellence project (P07- RNM- 03246) and by the European Commission through the PLANET project (EC FP 7th Grant Agreement 257649).