Category: Threatened species

The removal of feral animals enables native wildlife to thrive

Posted Laura TingLeave a commentPosted in Threatened species, Tracking Projects

In December 2020, Dr Dave Algar was awarded the National Froggatt Award for his contributions in eliminating feral cats from Dirk Hartog Island (DHI) in Western Australia. He was also recognised for his efforts in leading his team to develop the aptly named ERADICAT bait – which is now widely used for feral cat control. At Wildlife Drones, we have been fortunate to witness the positive outcomes of Dr Algar’s work. Dirk Hartog Island was once overrun by feral cats, sheep and goats due to European settlement. As a result, 10 Australian native species disappeared from the Island’s fast-changing ecology. […]

Catching up with Save Vietnam’s Wildlife

Posted Laura TingLeave a commentPosted in Threatened species, Tracking Projects

At Wildlife Drones, we’ve had the pleasure of working with researchers, conservationists and land managers from all around the world who have dedicated their careers to saving species from extinction. One of our most memorable experiences was assisting the team at Save Vietnam’s Wildlife to radio-track the movements of critically endangered pangolins using our technology. So, to commemorate this year’s Threatened Species Day, we caught up with Huyen Nguyen, a field researcher from Save Vietnam’s Wildlife to see how they were going with their Pangolin conservation work. Before using Wildlife Drones, what was it like manually radio-tracking pangolins in the […]

Positive Impacts of COVID-19 on the Illegal Wildlife Trade

Posted Laura TingLeave a commentPosted in Threatened species

If you told me a few months ago that the world would have literally gone into lockdown because of a global pandemic – I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are. At Wildlife Drones we have been working from home for over the past two weeks. Like many other organisations around the world, this has quickly become our new norm. But for how long? Who knows. Discussions about COVID-19 have mostly focused on the negative implications that this will have to our healthcare system, economy and so on. But amidst all of this, there is a silver lining. […]

Tracking Pangolins in Vietnam

Posted Laura TingLeave a commentPosted in Radio-tracking drones, Threatened species, Tracking Projects

In a world first, Wildlife Drones have been working with Save Vietnam’s Wildlife (SVW) to track the movements of critically endangered Sunda Pangolins in Vietnam from the air. Often mistaken as reptiles, pangolins are actually one of the only known mammals to be covered in large, protective scales. While their scales serve to protect them from predators in the wild, they are also what makes them prized by poachers.  In fact, Pangolins are considered to be one of the world’s most trafficked mammals. In the fight against the illegal wildlife trade, our partners at SVW have worked tirelessly to rescue […]

Wildlife Drones successfully track Swift Parrot flocks

Posted debbiesaunders2 CommentsPosted in Environmental Drones, Radio-tracking drones, Threatened species

We’re super excited that we recently managed to find 60 swift parrots on Bush Heritage Australia’s Tarcutta Hills Reserve which is the largest flock ever recorded on the reserve.  We also managed to radio-tag and track these fascinating birds despite their habit of feeding on nectar in the tops of very tall trees, as reported on ABC news today. Over the past month our cutting edge technology has enabled us to track the movements of multiple birds at the same time within the grand old growth white box and mugga ironbark woodland.  Importantly our tracking has resulted in new foraging and roosting […]

Searching for the Elusive Swift Parrot

Posted Laura TingLeave a commentPosted in Environmental Drones, Radio-tracking drones, Threatened species

I love this time of the year, when the air is crisp and the buds on the winter flowering gum trees finally spring open and start dripping with nectar.  It also signals the start of the Swift Parrot winter migration season.  This is when the grassy woodlands and box ironbark forests of the Riverina region are at their very best, filled with honeyeaters galore that have travelled vast distances to feed on this energy rich nectar at a time when there is generally not much food around.  The forest canopy shakes with the movement of small birds flitting from tree […]