Transforming wildlife management with drones and AI

• DroneWild uses drones and AI to identify and verify species, facilitating streamlined wildlife monitoring;

• Sister company BH Wildlife Consultancy utilises DJI thermal drones to track animals and help with population management;

• Drones provide an evidence-based approach and offer accurate, fast, and non-invasive wildlife monitoring;

• Success stories include uncovering greater numbers of wallabies than previously thought on the Isle of Man; highlighting the impact of deer populations in the Broads National Park; and tracking an escaped Japanese macaque - a story that made international headlines;

• BH Wildlife Consultancy and DroneWild are advocates of DJI drones and leverage support from heliguy™.

An innovative NatureTech firm is harnessing drones and AI to drive a new era of wildlife management and conservation.

DroneWild has developed a machine learning tool that uses UAS data to automatically identify and verify species via a web app, and soon-to-be in real-time.

It enables faster and consistent analysis of populations, saving manual reviewing time while also reducing human error.

The Edinburgh-based firm is the brainchild of husband and wife team, Katie and Ben Harrower, who also run BH Wildlife Consultancy.

BHWC operates across the UK and Europe, deploying DJI’s thermal drone fleet to track species such as deer, wild boar, and other more unusual species, including wallabies and wildcats.

The video below shows a herd of Fallow deer, using the DJI M350 RTK and H30T.

Last year, the company deployed a M30T to track a missing Japanese macaque named Honshu, whose escape from Highland Wildlife Park made international headlines.

Drones offer accurate, fast, and non-invasive wildlife monitoring across extensive landscape-scale areas, as well as smaller sites, and help to collect data across complex terrain - ideal for tracking animals such as feral goats.

Aerial insights provide evidence-based data to help sustainably manage animal numbers and drive conservation efforts.

And Ben believes that combining this with AI will further revolutionise the sector.

“It's a leap forward in data-driven conservation,” said Ben, who has two decades of experience in the forestry and wildlife industry.

“Automating species identification and integrating AI directly into drone workflows drastically reduces human error, saves countless hours of manual review, and ensures a consistent, science-backed approach to every drone operation,” he added.

DroneWild and BH Wildlife Consultancy are big advocates of DJI drones and leverage heliguy™ for supply, support, and UK-based repairs.

DroneWild: Tech Meets Conservation

Katie and Ben formed DroneWild in response to the Scottish Government’s CivTech programme: Specifically, a challenge from Forestry & Land Scotland, who sought a system to help wildlife rangers identify the exact location of every animal larger than 5kg in a specified area in real-time.

Leaning on their BHWC experience - including workflows established with DJI tech - the couple set to work.

“These operations provided us with a robust methodology: How to fly, locate, and map animals quickly and reliably, without causing unnecessary stress or disturbance,” said Ben.

“Traditional ground-based methods often fall short, but we’d proven that drones equipped with thermal sensors and paired with the right workflows could generate highly-accurate wildlife population data at scale.”

DroneWild's AI system is capable of real-time species recognition and behaviour analysis - even identifying individual animals within a large cluster. It will be able to identify sex and age breakdowns in deer populations, and work is ongoing to broaden it to other species.

The team developed the system using its image database of more than 250,000 DJI drone captures, including multiple species, habitats, and weather conditions.

“Using AI enables more precise wildlife monitoring and enhances decision-making with near-instant analysis, helping to accelerate workflows and boost accuracy at every step,” said Ben.

DroneWild is more than just AI, though. The company also focuses on hardware consultancy and industry-specific training to help others make the most out of DJI drones for wildlife management and monitoring.

The company has also developed a software platform to enable operators to track and record the live position of the drone, active rangers in the field, and detect wildlife on a dynamic 3D map.

This real-time geospatial awareness enhances safety, precision, and efficiency during wildlife monitoring operations.

​Ben said: “Our mission is to provide a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for wildlife management and conservation.

“The four pillars of DroneWild work in tandem to deliver unmatched accuracy, efficiency, and minimal disturbance in the field, ensuring that every drone flight closes the gap on conservation goals.”

Enhancing wildlife surveys with DJI thermal drones

DroneWild and BH Wildlife Consultancy continue to demonstrate the transformative impact of drones for wildlife monitoring.

The companies utilise a tried and tested formula: Deploying thermal imaging to detect a heat source, before engaging visual zoom - if required - for a closer look.

This methodology enables the team to observe wildlife from 1km away, or even more than a mile in favourable conditions.

Rob McCreath, DroneWild Project Manager, said: “Thermal drone imagery is particularly useful for spotting elusive species. The visual zoom enables us to be far away and observe animals in their natural environment, with very little disturbance. And from an environmental point of view, it lowers our footprint.”

The drone data is time, date, and location stamped, and can be plotted on a map to provide a more visual view of species distribution and density.

Crucially, the information is gathered quickly over large expanses: BHWC has surveyed deer over a record area of 600km².

Rob said: “Drones are efficient, and when you have multiple pilots and multiple drones flying at once, the productivity increases yet again, and it enables systematic coverage with no overlaps or gaps.

“Using a fleet of drones for a survey provides a very accurate and real-time picture as you go through the landscape. This builds confidence that we aren’t under-counting or double-counting.”

Drones for wildlife conservation: Success stories

The team's drone work has brought tangible results.

Surveys in the Isle of Man - covering almost 1,000 acres - uncovered greater numbers of wallabies than previously thought, locating 560 in the Ballaugh Curraghs area alone.

Elsewhere, two drone surveys in the Broads National Park, in south-east England, highlighted the scale of the deer populations impacting the arable crops and the area’s delicate ecology.

The results were warmly received by farmers and landowners, who used the data to drive their efforts to sustainably manage the population in the future.

Ben said: “Understanding population dynamics lets us understand what is recruited into the population on an annual basis. It helps to inform the landowner or client about what will happen with that wildlife population.

“Drones bring an evidence-based approach and removes any ambiguity. The data provides an indisputable, minimum count of a wildlife population. With our imagery and mapping tools, we can map out large areas confidently and accurately.”

Harnessing the power of DJI tech

BH Wildlife Consultancy and DroneWild benefit from the DJI ecosystem - utilising drones, payloads, and power banks.

Drone solutions in their arsenal include the DJI M350 RTK and H30T payload, DJI M30T, DJI Matrice 4T, and DJI Matrice 4TD.

Ben said during the beginning of the DroneWild project, they conducted head-to-head trials, pitting DJI tech against drones from other leading brands, but the former came out on top.

“The DJI Mavic 3T and DJI Matrice 4T, for instance, consistently outperformed others in essential performance areas, including thermal sensor effectiveness and clarity of optical zoom, while retaining the minimum levels of wind and weather resistance, portability, and battery life,” added Ben.

The team juggles its DJI fleet to ensure the best drone is deployed for each job.

Ben said: “Something like the DJI M4T is ideal for portability, especially when we are navigating complex terrain, while the DJI M30T has been our workhorse for the survey business.

“When it comes to high profile surveys, we tend to opt for the M350 RTK and H30T. During the winter, we hammer these drones - often several hours a day: They’re rugged, and always perform well.”

To support their work in the field, the team utilises the DJI Power 1000, which is part of DJI’s power-bank range.

“The power banks are really helpful when we are out and about - especially in remote environments - and they ensure that we can maintain operational continuity,” said Ben.

BH Wildlife Consultancy and DroneWild procure their DJI drones from heliguy™, as well as utilise the in-house UK-based repair centre.

Contact heliguy™ for help and support to start and scale your drone operations.