Since the evolution of drones, they have been used to carry out many important tasks. They have aided projects like planting trees in large areas, inspecting unattainable metro tunnels, and even deliver emergency supplies to hospitals. Now, Australia is using these flying machines to monitor and rescue their wildlife.
A BBC official, Nick Kwek, joined a team of experts in spotting kangaroos and koalas in the dense bushlands. According to Nick, the special drones equipped with thermal camera kits can cover a huge area in no time and spot kangaroos by their body temperatures, even through dense canopies.
On the other hand, Dr. Grant Hamilton from Queensland Unversity of Technology has created an AI algorithm using computer vision that can automatically detect Koalas in the wild. Initially, it didn’t work as it was false detecting kangaroos instead of koalas. Then it started to detect “humans and even hot car bonnets”, according to Dr. Hamilton. However, after continuously perfecting the algorithm, the doctor was able to achieve the desired results at last.
After the inception of drones in wildlife rescue missons, experts saw a huge increase in the number of rescued animals. One of the doctors of Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, Dr. Michael Pyne says that when he joined the hospital, they admitted as low as 3 koalas in a whole year. Last year, the hospital admitted 600 rescued koalas.
