Plains-Wanderers Birds Population Check

BACKGROUND

Open Plains Ecology, DEWLP, and Zoo’s Victoria are involved in ensuring the population of critically endangered Plains-wanderers. Once seen from Victoria to Queensland these birds have shown a dramatic decline in their population and now only have strongholds in the Northern Plains of Victoria and the Riverina region of New South Wales. There are estimated to only be between 250 and 1,000 land-dwelling birds left in the wild today.

Plains-wanderers stand at 12-15cm tall and are camouflaged to blend into the plains of arid Australia. A Plains-wanderer can be observed based on its white to buff colour with white and blackish markings over the body including spots and streaks on the head and neck.

Photo: Lachlan Hall

PROBLEM

The Plain-Wanderer’s population has taken a massive hit due to changing climate conditions, the development of agriculture, and dense pastoral use.

Furthermore, Plains-wanderers are easy prey for foxes with their instinct to try and run away from predators. While not entirely flightless, Plain-Wanderers have poor flight capabilities and therefore rely greatly on their camouflage.

In July 2015 the Australian Government upgraded the conservation status of the Plains-wanderer to Critically Endangered.

Researchers have a difficult role in locating the birds due to their neutral plumage. Therefore, they had to find a way of solving this dilemma and providing fast and accurate information to understand population density

SOLUTION

XM2 EARTH used the combined technologies of the DJI M210 and WiIdlife Drones’ Radio-tracking payload to aid the conservation efforts of the Plains-wanderer recovery program. Based in the Echuca area, one of our pilots flew the M210 with Wildlife Drones’ VHF (Very High Frequency) radio-tracker which listens for radio-signals from the birds tags. All of the tagged birds were accounted for using the VHF tracker. By doing this, the researchers in a small amount of time are able to understand the success of captive breeding introductions into the wild and the survival of each bird in the arid landscape. In addition to using the VHF tracker, XM2 rigged the DJI H20T Thermal camera to the top of the ute roof. H20T is a quad-sensor solution with a 20 MP zoom camera, 12 MP wide camera, 1200 m LRF and a 640×512 px Radiometric Thermal Camera. In the middle of the night, small heat spots were noticed moving around on the monitor which could then be confirmed as Plains-wanderers.

With this information, the team was able to better understand the state of the Plains-wanderers population and their survival in the wild.

XM2 EARTH is excited to be involved in the efforts to prevent the extinction of the Plains-wanderers. It was a pleasure working with those who are so passionate in their efforts for conservation..