Wildlife Drones

Summary

About

About Wildlife Drones

Wildlife Drones combines a directional VHF antenna and radio receiver carried by an aircraft with a laptop base station. Signal data is relayed to the base station, where the tracking software maps animal locations in real time. The field workflow can operate without an internet connection, allowing teams to examine detections while working in remote terrain.

The company packages its telemetry equipment for different aircraft, including off-the-shelf drones and adapters for piloted platforms. The receiver, mounting hardware and software form the tracking system around the chosen aircraft. It can also support remote downloads of logs from compatible GPS/VHF tags, connecting the airborne search with the records used for subsequent monitoring and analysis.

PRICE
Range 1Y
Return
High
Low
Updated
DATA: KORTHOS

Products

Funding

Investors

  • Uniseed - Lead - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2018-12-13

Team

  • Debbie Saunders - Founder and CEO - Founded Wildlife Drones and leads its conservation technology and flight operations.

Research

  • Autonomous drone validates wildlife radio tracking

    2018-10-31 - Research Publication - The Science Robotics paper published on October 31, 2018 addressed ground tracking limits that affect small tagged animals, including many bird and mammal species. Researchers combined a lightweight aerial robot, miniaturized sensor, Bayesian data fusion and information-based flight planning to locate critically endangered swift parrots. Estimated bird positions were within about 50 metres on average, and the robot produced a correct estimate as fast as or faster than experienced human trackers where signals were detectable.

    Source

Timeline

Events

  • 2024-03-05 - Award - Wildlife Drones wins AAUS technology award

    Wildlife Drones received the AAUS Innovation - Technology Award on March 5, 2024. The award recognized development of the first robotic radio-tracking drone prototype into a viable second-generation production payload. AAUS highlighted the system impact for land managers and wildlife researchers tracking small animals beyond the practical reach of traditional methods.

    Source
  • 2018-12-13 - Funding - Wildlife Drones secures AUD 670K Uniseed funding

    ABC Radio Canberra reported the AUD 670,000 Uniseed funding on December 13, 2018. The backing was intended to move the company wildlife-tracking payload from research and testing toward broader market availability. Founder Debbie Saunders developed the concept while tracking endangered swift parrots and seeking a faster alternative to handheld radio telemetry.

    Source
  • 2018-10-31 - Research Publication - Autonomous drone validates wildlife radio tracking

    The Science Robotics paper published on October 31, 2018 addressed ground tracking limits that affect small tagged animals, including many bird and mammal species. Researchers combined a lightweight aerial robot, miniaturized sensor, Bayesian data fusion and information-based flight planning to locate critically endangered swift parrots. Estimated bird positions were within about 50 metres on average, and the robot produced a correct estimate as fast as or faster than experienced human trackers where signals were detectable.

    Source

Context

Comparable profiles

  • RFDesign

    stack adjacency - UAV Telemetry Radio Supplier

  • RadioMaster

    stack adjacency - UAV Telemetry Radio Supplier

Context tags

  • Drone payload sensors - Capability - The receiver and antenna are specialist sensing payloads mounted to commercial drones.
  • Wildlife radio telemetry - Workflow - The system locates multiple VHF-tagged animals from the air.
  • Conservation drone tracking - Peer Group - The company specialises in aerial wildlife and conservation tracking.
  • UAV telemetry radio supplier - Stack Layer - The product stack includes a VHF receiver, directional antenna and base station.