Opponents of UAVs claiming the tech poses a threat to personal privacy will dismay at this news. Scottish researchers have deployed drones to differentiate pregnant females from others in populations of dolphins. Thus far none of the Ms. Flippers has objected.
The identification process was part of a project between scientists from Scotland’s Aberdeen University and Duke University’s Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing Laboratory. The Scottish contingent has studied local bottlenose dolphins in the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation for over three decades, and recently added drones to their mix of tools to identify pregnant females and monitor procreation rates. Use of the aerial tech not only proved less invasive than previous methods, but also were far more precise in determining which individuals were carrying calves – and which of those successfully gave birth later.
Before deployment of drones, Scottish experts had to trail dolphins in boats and…
