We find ourselves in “The Age of the Drone.” An exciting time, but one also tinged with risk.
The age of drone usage has provided a means to obtain great aerial footage and has now become available to the masses.
A recent event in the Chobe National Park provided me with the opportunity to use one myself. It is an amazing machine and great for “lodge photography” as it gives you the ability to show off how these fantastic properties are built and set in beautiful settings, from a birds-eye-view.
Here’s what happened:
We were at a 1 day old lion – buffalo kill on Harvey’s pan inside the park where I took the decision to see if we could get some footage using a drone. As the drone flew towards the lions a few of them got up and moved off the kill and away. Of course we retracted the drone immediately and put it down as we realised it had disturbed the lions. There were some tourists watching the lions too and they witnessed the incident which had a negative impact on their safari experience too.
The situation quickly escalated as the very diligent National Parks staff arrived on the scene and requested that I come into their office for a meeting. They expressed their own displeasure at the fact that I had used the drone. We concluded that it was poor judgment on my part and that this is not something that should be done.
We collectively decided that it would be a good idea to try and share my experience on our blog so that we too can hopefully impart our learnings with others and educate those who are thinking of doing the same.
In a nut shell, these are my findings about using drones in the wilderness:
- A drone sounds like a swarm of bees and lots of wildlife do not like bees at all and are made skittish by the sound. In fact, in Kenya they are trying to use bees to keep elephants away from areas where they are creating damage. The drone sound does disturb wildlife.
- A bonus to using the drone is that it can get closer to animals than the pilot would be comfortable with doing personally. However, drones do disturb some animals and hence should not be used.
- The noise pollution element of drone usage makes it inconsiderate to use them around others enjoying the serenity of the African bushveld.
- Because drones have quite a long range you can fly them very high and this too can be dangerous from an aviation perspective.
Do drones have a place in wildlife areas and if so what are the positives?
I think some of the potential positives are:
- You can program drones to fly waypoint routes. This could prove to be a very efficient way to help in the fight against poaching as the footage of open areas will show where the poachers are based. This would have to be managed by the anti-poaching units in place, working with the game management authorities in the area.
- Drones could assist in game census counting and locating animals for game management purposes. It could be an affordable method in this area of wildlife management.
- If there is flooding in certain areas, drone aerial footage can be used as a preventative method to detect where there is vulnerability on the landscape and can help manage flooded areas.
My perspective on using drones for wilderness photography:
If I were to impart any pearls of wisdom on that matter, based on my recent experience, I would say, don’t do it!
It is such new technology that there is no way of telling how animals will react to a drone. In a race to always find footage that is different and will grab the attention of online users we have to always be very careful about how our methods impact on animals and people around us during that process.
Advice to other photographer’s who’d like to make use of drone photography? I’d suggest to always ask experts around you who understand the specific area you are working in to share their concerns about what effects the use of the drone could have there. This technology is going to evolve very fast and specific laws about the usage will definitely tighten.
