A fundamental requirement of conservation is to monitor wildlife populations, yet funding limitations mean conservation managers worldwide forgo this. Consequently, they have insufficient or poor quality data with which to base their decisions. This project seeks to use the emerging technology of drones and modern statistical methods to derive robust population estimates for wildlife species in conservation areas. We anticipate using drones with standard and infra-red cameras to fly transects to obtain animal observations to use in distance sampling to derive these estimates. We will also investigate dual observers (two cameras) to ascertain whether Andy Royle's population estimation method is more robust. We will compare these estimates to the standard estimates used (snow counts in Poland's Bialowieza Primeval Forest and helicopter total counts in South Africa's Addo Elephant National Park and driven transects in Uganda's Murchison Falls National Park). We will also compare the cost effectiveness of each method to ensure our recommendations are an improvement for cash strapped conservation managers.

This is an issue relevant to European Natura2000 sites and Rewilding Europe sites, but also in Africa where many economies are based on wildlife use (hunting) and tourism and poor conservation decision making driven by a lack of data could endanger the economies of entire countries.

I have experience with the challenges of deriving population estimates for threatened species in Australia, Africa and Europe. My collaborators develop drones for use in conservation activities; others are world leaders on distance sampling and population estimation techniques.

https://www.bangor.ac.uk/senrgy/subject-areas/conservation/matt.php.en