Agriculture

Did You Know Drones Help Save Baby Deer?

A picture of a drone hovering above a wheat field.

In addition to helping farmers protect their crops and improve productivity, drones can also be used to save baby deer (fawns) from accidents during harvest. Female deer, like some birds, nest in tall grasses. Fawns however react to danger by hiding completely still which makes them vulnerable to accidents by agriculture machinery. The problem is that spotting fawns in large fields can be time-consuming and labour intensive. Drones can now be fitted with thermal imaging technology to find fawns and move them to safe locations before harvesting [1]. 

A picture of a baby deer lying on  grass

1. Cukor J, et al. Use of aerial thermography to reduce mortality of roe deer fawns before harvest. PeerJ. 2019;7:e6923. Published 2019 May 10.