Spotting a shy duck in river rapids has become much easier, thanks to a trial project using thermal drones to find threatened whio in the Tongariro area.
It began with drone heat surveys for deer, a tool adopted by the Department of Conservation in the last few years. To detect deer, contractors fly drones equipped with thermal and standard camera equipment across the target area.
DOC Principal Ranger Dan Van Der Lubbe says Tongariro staff were impressed by the resolution of the drone cameras.
“Deer stand out of course, but we were seeing small mammals in these surveys we didn’t expect to pick up, and it was a bit of an ‘aha’ moment.”
Whio live on and near fast-flowing rivers. Typical monitoring is resource intensive, with rangers navigating rivers on foot or by raft.
“We can only have rangers in so many places,” says Dan. “So this thermal technology gives us an opportunity to learn about whio across more rivers.
“In our trial run we detected 10 pairs of whio, and six single birds across 8 km of the Whakapapa-iti River. We’ve never been able to survey there before, so this is a game changer.”
Operators use thermal cameras to locate the heat signature of birds on the river, then a standard camera to identify the species.
Dan says the technology means operators can zoom in on individual birds, almost distinguishing identifying features of each duck.
“And the best part is the whio just behave like normal. They don’t know the drone is even there, they just carry on feeding with no disturbance at all.”
Whio are found only in Aotearoa New Zealand, but their survival is threatened by habitat loss and introduced predators, particularly stoats.
The Whakapapa-iti runs alongside the Tongariro “whio security site”, where the whio population is protected and monitored with support from Genesis.
“This is really going to help us understand more about how whio are faring in more than just our intensive management areas. It’ll help us focus conservation where it will be most effective,” says Dan.
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