Innovative startup Wildlife Drones announced as Banksia Sustainability Awards finalist

Innovative drone sensor technology startup, Wildlife Drones, leading the way in sustainable wildlife and environmental monitoring

Wildlife Drones has developed the world’s most advanced drone-based animal tracking technology, and has been selected as a finalist in two separate categories of the 33rd National Banksia Sustainability awards. 

As a deep tech startup company, Wildlife Drones is revolutionising wildlife and environmental monitoring with their innovative drone-based sensor technology, and paving the way for more sustainable and regenerative conservation management. They are well on their way to achieving their goal of deploying autonomous environmental drone technology within every ecosystem type on the planet, by contributing to the conservation of threatened species, and control of invasive species, across Australia and globally.

With their core business focused on biodiversity conservation and their successful development and deployment of innovative technology, Wildlife Drones are leading contenders for both the Biodiversity and Ignite Banksia Awards:

• Banksia Biodiversity Award for positive contributions to the protection and restoration of nature; and
• Banksia Ignite Award for startups seeking investment to enable them further grow their business and advance their innovative, sustainable technology.

The Banksia Awards celebrate Australian businesses achieving excellence in sustainability and is one of the most prestigious and longest running sustainability programs in the world.

“The National Sustainability Awards recognise innovation and leadership through the lens of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These global goals aim to unite the world businesses, governments and citizens to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and protect the planet.” – Banksia Foundation.

“We believe that everyone has a role to play in achieving the SDGs. We established our startup company to empower people all around the world with innovative, user-friendly technology, enabling them to improve and adapt their conservation management for a more sustainable future,” said CEO and founder Dr Debbie Saunders. 

“We are honoured and delighted to be selected as finalists in both categories. It’s great to have recognition of how we have sustainably grown our business and expanded internationally, while also celebrating the exciting roadmap we have ahead of us as we continue to innovate our core technology and push the boundaries of what is possible technologically.” 

“We feel very privileged to work alongside our diverse and passionate clients, who inspire us every day and are directly tackling some of the biggest challenges facing our natural world.  By providing them with cutting-edge technology to cost-effectively collect more data, more often, with less effort, across any terrain, we can help amplify the positive benefits of their impactful work.” said Dr Saunders. 

For over 20 years, Dr Debbie Saunders has worked as an ecologist and studied the movements of small migratory birds. Frustrated by the limitations of existing tools and technologies, Debbie was inspired to develop a practical solution with wide-ranging applicability. Wildlife Drones’ innovative technology is now being used by clients around the world. 

Winners will be announced on the 31st of March. 

About Wildlife Drones

Wildlife Drones has been working with multiple clients in Australia, the United States and many more countries to track wildlife, invasive species and livestock. Dr Debbie Saunders recently published a viewshed paper on “Radio-tracking wildlife with drones: a viewshed analysis quantifying survey coverage across diverse landscapes”.

Sustainability is at the core of Wildlife Drones’ values. The success of the business is intricately intertwined with the diverse needs of the community and the natural environment itself.

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