Liverpool John Moores University professor Serge Wich, who was a co-author of a study, shared, “The most commonly used method to survey great ape populations is counting nests during ground surveys as they build a new nest each night but these ground surveys do not occur frequently enough with due time and costs involved. So far, aerial drone surveys have successfully detected nests of orang-utans, but before this study it was unknown if this technology would work for African apes, which often construct their nest lower below the canopy. This study shows that drones are also a promising tool to assist African ape conservation.”
These drones used to assist in locating endangered chimpanzees would be fitted with a standard camera, where they are able to detect nests quickly, not to mention snap a large number of photos in a matter of 20 minutes of flight time. Researchers are then able to come up with maps of the distribution of these nests. Seems to be a win-win situation, right?