Title
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to study a freshwater turtle population in the Brazilian Amazon
Author(s)
Fagundes, Camila K.; Amend, Marcos; Ferrara, Camila R.
Published
2022
Publisher
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
Abstract
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones have been widely adopted recently for the conservation, management, and research of a variety of taxa with various purposes and have given good results. This study was the first one to analyze behavioral patterns and to evaluate the disturbance effect of the drone on individuals of a freshwater turtle species in a white river in the Brazilian Amazon. We found no turtles returned to the water during drone flights while nesting. We recorded that a safe altitude for observing Giant South American River Turtle (Podocnemis expansa) individuals that were in the water and basking during the nesting period was above 20 m and 40 m, respectively. Different categories of image acquisition had no significant effect on the number of individuals we counted. Also, the number of individuals detected by drones were not significantly different among the sampling times. The interaction of image acquisition type and time was also not significantly different. Data suggest that drones have performed efficiently for studying freshwater turtle populations in the Amazon. The tool can provide information about abundance, distribution, density, and reproductive behavior, which is particularly important in areas with mass nesting and mass hatching.
Keywords
chelonians; drone; methods; Podocnemis expansa; turtle; unmanned aerial vehicle
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PUB27512