Kangaroo Count at Morang Wetlands
Image: Vanessa Bluett / Parks Victoria
Morang Wetlands is the environment of many wildlife and fauna species, giving us a unique perspective of what the environment looked like prior to European settlement. Combined with basalt, sedimentary rock, and rich wetlands, its unique landscape is home to threatened and regionally significant species.
Eastern Grey Kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) at Morang Wetlands
RMIT has partnered with Parks Victoria and XM2 EARTH at the Morang Parklands to improve the understanding of airborne thermal imagery for monitoring large mammals in parks and reserves, where factors such as terrain limit the application of traditional monitoring techniques.
The goal was to test two fundamental areas of limited knowledge. This is the use of high vertical and low-level oblique thermal imagery using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) to improve the ease and accuracy of kangaroo counting. Specifically, to examine how kangaroo detection by UAV thermal images is influenced by factors such as vertical altitude, oblique range, time of day, terrain, and foliage density.
XM2 EARTH arriving early in the morning to conduct thermal population count
Parks Victoria and XM2 EARTH deploying two DJI M300s for thermal population count
XM2 EARTH was employed to use the latest thermal payload technology at the Morang Wetlands to count the Eastern Grey Kangaroo population to gather important thermal information. In this case, XM2 EARTH and Parks Victoria used the DJI M300 and the DJI H20T thermal payload to conduct the population count in the early hours of the morning.
Completed at beginning of the week 2nd of May, 2022, now the data is in the hands of RMIT in order to determine the feasibility of this UAV thermal imagery and its detection of kangaroos.
It was a pleasure to work alongside RMIT and Parks Victoria in protecting our vital nature reserves and the inhabitants that thrive off of these important ecosystems.
The vertical vision of thermal imagery of Morang Wetlands captured by DJI M300 H20T
Plenty Gorge Parklands are part of an Aboriginal cultural landscape in the traditional Country of the Wurundjeri Peoples. XM2 EARTH respects the past, present, and emerging Wurundjeri Traditional Owners and the connections that they have to these lands and waters.