The use of aerial digital imagery for kangaroo monitoring

Abstract

The harvesting of any wildlife dictates that accurate monitoring of abundance is undertaken to ensure that viable populations of all the species involved are sustained. Currently, in South Australia, the monitoring of kangaroos is conducted by ‘trained observers’ visually counting the different kangaroo species from a Cessna 182 flying at a height of 250 feet and at a speed of 100 knots. Scientists involved with these survey methods acknowledge the inaccuracy of such fixed‐wing strip transects preferring to use helicopter line transects. However, the cost of the latter renders them unsuitable for large‐scale annual surveys. This paper reports on the outcomes of a pilot study introducing an alternative means of kangaroo population monitoring. The method involved using fixed‐wing aerial scanners utilizing both digital videography and a thermal scanner over a fauna reserve with known kangaroo numbers. The results show that the digital scanners have the potential to be used as a means of counting kangaroos, but not as a replacement for the current large‐scale annual state monitoring technique. However, the ability to embed spatial data into the digital imagery does enable the aligning of kangaroo count numbers to land systems and specific habitats which would be a useful attribute for future kangaroo modelling studies.