Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can play a wide range of roles in the field of environmental management and conservationists the world over have wasted no time putting them to good use.  One obvious advantage is that UAVs can facilitate inspection of potential environmental hazards and the counting and monitoring of endangered species without the expense of planes or helicopters and the use of human crews operating hand-held cameras.  Drones are cheaper to fly and can also be flown in hazardous conditions and in difficult terrain where there’s the risk of a loss of life.  Some areas in need of inspection are almost completely inaccessible to humans without the help of thermal imaging. Drone cameras can arrive at a more accurate count by locating species hidden in forests or thick brush that human inspectors might overlook.

The University of New Hampshire recently decided to deploy drones to assist in the counting and monitoring of moose that past surveys showed were dying in record numbers.  Thanks to climate change, New Hampshire summers have been getting shorter and warmer, which has boosted the tick population preying on local animals including deer and moose. Infected with these blood-sucking insects like never before, the moose especially were getting severely anemic and dying, researchers found.  In fact, the moose population in the region had suffered a 47% decline between 1995 and 2017, data showed.

Researchers suspect that the problem may actually be worse than the official data show.  Current moose counting methods rely on deer hunters recording their observations somewhat informally.  Officials extrapolate from those observations to create rough official estimates.  While the count could be improved with the use of helicopters, northern New Hampshire’s terrain features high rugged mountains, which discourage that option.  Instead, UNH has settled on a combination of drones for aerial observation and trail cams that can track the moose population up close with greater precision.

This is not UNH’s first venture into moose counting – an earlier school study found a precipitous decline on moose calves, helping to trigger official concern –  but it’s the first to involve drones.  School officials say the drones are equipped and ready to fly, but researchers still need to install 140 cameras along various moose trails in the region, a process that could take several months, they say. UNH isn’t acting alone.  New Hampshire’s Fish and Game Department, with funding from the U.S. Sport, Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program, is co-sponsoring the three-year “moose count.”  Officials hope the program’s success will spur similar drone-supported moose conservation efforts throughout New England and in other states like California with sizable populations of the iconic species.