Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Thermal-image Acquisition Camera for Animal Survey -A Case Study on the Sichuan Snub-nosed monkeys in Mt. Qinling.

Following significant development in technology alternative devices have been applied to field work on animal and plant surveys and environmental protection. One of them is the thermal-image acquisition cameras installed on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which have been used in animal surveys on a more open environment. This article, nevertheless, demonstrates an example of how UAVs can be used in high mountainous regions - a case study on the Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys with a detection rate of 65.19% individual identification. It also presents a model that can prospectively predict population size for a given animal species, which is based on a joint initial work of the UAVs and traditional survey on the ground. A great potential application of the UAVs is to significantly shorten survey procedures, particularly regarding the areas in high mountains and plateaus, such as the Himalayans, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Mt. Hengduan, the Yunnan-Gui Plateau and Mt. Qinling in China, where carrying out a traditional survey is extremely difficult, so that a lot of species/population surveys, particularly those critically endangered, are awfully absent. This has remarkably lagged the processes of making and amending their conservation strategies, tactics and management accordingly and timely. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.