title: Best practice for minimising unmanned aerial vehicle disturbance to wildlife in biological field research.
abstract: The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), colloquially referred to as 'drones', for biological field research is increasing [1-3]. Small, civilian UAVs are providing a viable, economical tool for ecology researchers and environmental managers. UAVs are particularly useful for wildlife observation and monitoring as they can produce systematic data of high spatial and temporal resolution [4]. However, this new technology could also have undesirable and unforeseen impacts on wildlife, the risks of which we currently have little understanding [5-7]. There is a need for a code of best practice in the use of UAVs to mitigate or alleviate these risks, which we begin to develop here.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. Electronic address: jarrod.hodgson@adelaide.edu.au.
authors.forename: Jarrod C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Hodgson
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
authors.forename: Lian Pin
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Koh
mesh_terms: D000401:Aircraft; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D058998:Remote Sensing Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*