digitalSee

What does the digitalsee employee, a drone pilot, do on his day off or before starting work at 4.30 a.m. in May and June? Right, rescuing fawns!

Every year, many little fawns fall victim to a mower. I would like to spare you the unsightly photos here!

Modern technology makes it possible to do something about this. Many multicopter pilots, who also have a system with a thermal imaging camera, organize themselves, sometimes together with the nature conservation association NABU, to support farmers and hunters to search the areas to be mowed from the air in advance and spare the animals this agonizing death.

This always requires a multicopter with a thermal imaging camera. There are various systems from different manufacturers in different price ranges. It starts from ~€2,500. However, the resolution of the thermal imaging camera on many systems in the lower price range is very coarse, which requires a lower flight altitude. This in turn increases the risk of collision with trees at the edge of the field and also reduces the area coverage.
But that’s not all. Additional equipment is also required, such as additional batteries for the multicopter, an additional monitor, handheld radios for coordination and, if necessary, a tripod and transport baskets.
Depending on the area of application, a remote pilot certificate A2 from the German Federal Aviation Authority may also be required, which can be obtained through a course with two multiple-choice exams from certified bodies for a fee.

At the field, the pilot meets the farmer/hunter and 2-3 other helpers (or more if the field is large) before sunrise and systematically flies over the field to be mowed. Identified heat sources in the area are checked by the teams of helpers. If fawns are found here, there are two possible procedures:

1. The fawn is transported by the helpers wearing gloves and with plenty of grass in between in transport baskets from the danger zone, e.g. to a neighboring field.
2. The fawn is covered with a basket and this is secured to the ground with pegs and marked with a grazing stick or similar. In this case, the farmer mows around it and then removes the basket again.

The areas to be searched are always different sizes, always offer different numbers of finds and also surprises from time to time 😊

As a reward for getting up early and all the equipment, you get pictures like these:

Photo: Joachim Neumann, NABU Species Conservation Center Leiferde/Gifhorn

An online platform makes it possible to network all those involved in such activities. Farmers and hunters either enter the areas on www.rehkitzretter.eu or in the UAV editor or contact one of us directly. We then coordinate the operations with each other in order to optimize the areas and resources.

I am a member of a group of currently 7 pilots who are active in the districts of Peine, Hildesheim, Wolfenbüttel, Salzgitter, Braunschweig, Gifhorn and partly in the Hanover region. The large catchment area with comparatively few pilots does not always make it easy to get everything under one roof.
Therefore, we are always happy about active support and expansion of our network!
If you have any questions, please contact me (adrian.richter@digitalsee.de).

Blog post: @Adrian R.