Camera Trap Methods and Drone Thermal Surveillance Provide Reliable, Comparable Density Estimates of Large, Free-Ranging Ungulates.

Camera traps and drone surveys both leverage advancing technologies to study dynamic wildlife populations with little disturbance. Both techniques entail strengths and weaknesses, and common camera trap methods can be confounded by unrealistic assumptions and prerequisite conditions. We compared three methods to estimate the population density of white-tailed deer () in a section of Pilot Mountain State Park, NC, USA: (1) camera trapping using mark-resight ratios or (2) N-mixture modeling and (3) aerial thermal videography from a drone platform.

Unmanned aerial vehicles for the assessment and monitoring of environmental contamination: An example from coal ash spills.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer new opportunities to monitor pollution and provide valuable information to support remediation. Their low-cost, ease of use, and rapid deployment capability make them ideal for environmental emergency response. Here we present a UAV-based study of the third largest coal ash spill in the United States.