LiDAR Remote Sensing Technology for Animal Protection

Author: Neuvition, IncRelease time:2023-03-17 09:30:44

The preservation of wildlife and other natural resources is essential because they play a significant role in many ecosystems that support the balance and sustainable growth of nature. They are also essential for the life, survival, and development of humans and other species. To ensure current and long-term sustainable development, we should therefore implement effective measures to protect wildlife and natural resources. LiDAR remote sensing technology is an innovative and effective way to protect animals.

What is concerning, though, is how much hunting, encroachment, and ecological harm caused by human activities have been inflicted upon numerous animals. Taking steps to safeguard the animals in this situation is essential to preventing their exploitation. A novel form of technology for protecting animals, LiDAR remote sensing technology can quickly and reliably monitor an area and provide early warning. It can also quickly and reliably identify intruders, preventing the exploitation of animals.

LiDAR remote sensing technology has the following key functions in animal protection scenarios:

1. Animals are detected, and then an alarm is issued, and the animal manager can immediately go to the scene to deal with the situation, thereby effectively protecting the animals;

2. It can be used to monitor the behavior of animals, to better identify and track the trajectory of animals;

3. LiDAR can work at night, which helps to capture the activities of nocturnal animals and ensure their safety;

4. LiDAR can also be used for data analysis, helping scientists understand the ecological environment of animals and helping to study strategies for biological protection.

In situations involving animal protection, LiDAR remote sensing technology performs the following crucial tasks:

1. When animals are found, an alarm is immediately sent out, allowing the animal manager to respond quickly to the scene and effectively protect the animals;

2. It can be used to track animal behavior to find and identify animals more accurately;

3. LiDAR can operate at night, which helps to record the nocturnal animal activity and ensures the safety of the animals;

4. LiDAR can also be used for data analysis, which aids in understanding the ecological environment of animals and aids in the research of biological protection strategies.

There have been numerous studies and applications in the world up to this point.

1. LiDAR remote sensing technology is used as an automatic surveillance system to safeguard particular areas.

LiDAR technology for elephant protection project

For the new approach to the elephant protection project in Mount Kenya National Park, LiDAR was chosen as the primary sensor to safeguard the imperiled elephants.

As a partner in the foundation’s conservation project, Instarect Limited, a Nairobi, Kenya-based provider of security fence solutions, selected a smart LiDAR model as the primary sensor. To automatically detect and open the gates for approaching elephants, LiDAR is used in conjunction with the newly installed solar gates and CCTV cameras with a detection range of 20 x 20 meters. Only elephants are detected by these sensors’ “eyes,” which are also “defiant” and “ignore” small animals. When the elephants activate the sensor, authorized park rangers are immediately notified via text message, and they can then view the CCTV footage on their mobile phones. The ranger then sends a text message and closes the gate after ensuring that all of the elephants have entered the park safely.

It is an important project to show how LiDAR remote sensing technology can help protect elephants and reduce conflicts between humans and wild animals that occur frequently in Mount Kenya National Park.

2. LiDAR is used to recreate ‘log castles’ to save homeless spiny-tailed lizards

LiDAR technology used to recreate 'log castles' to save homeless spiny-tailed lizards

Curtin University researchers used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology to recreate the habitat of the endangered Western Spiny-tailed lizards, which could revolutionize global animal conservation.

This study demonstrates that LiDAR remote sensing technology is a precise and efficient tool that can be used around the world to aid in animal conservation efforts.

LiDAR is a device that uses lasers to create a highly accurate 3D model and is most commonly attached to small planes or drones for the mining industry to map landform structures.

This is the first time that LiDAR remote sensing technology has been used in this way – to help characterize the microhabitat requirements of a particular threatened species. This will help us to identify areas and habitat structures that are important for protection, as well as show us how to recreate the optimal wooden ‘castles’ during landscape restoration to help safeguard the future of the Western Spiny-tailed Skink.

3. LiDAR is used to detect animals on the track

There are several reasons why some animals prefer to run on rails in cold wild areas. First, the heat generated by the rails warms the animals, allowing them to survive the cold wild weather. Second, there will be plenty of food on the rails to feed the animals. Another reason animals use rails is to avoid being interrupted by other wild animals. As a result, railroad tracks provide an ideal safe and warm environment, which attracts some animals.

Animals on the rails pose a great safety hazard to both the animals themselves and the trains. Neuvition LiDAR solution for rail transit intrusion detection helps to detect foreign object intrusion and gives an early warning.

4. Research progress of LiDAR remote sensing technology in the field of animal ecology to protect biodiversity.

The application status of LiDAR in animal ecology research is reviewed from three perspectives by summarizing the research of foreign scholars: the relationship between animal habitat selection and three-dimensional forest structure, habitat three-dimensional habitat mapping, biodiversity assessment, and species distribution model prediction. In comparison to traditional methods, the high-precision three-dimensional structural information provided by LiDAR remote sensing technology can significantly improve the assessment of animal habitat quality, the monitoring level of biodiversity, and the evaluation accuracy of species distribution models, which is conducive to a deeper understanding of the mechanism of species habitat selection and clustering. The current LiDAR-based forest parameter inversion algorithm is primarily used for forest resource surveys or forestry research, and it lacks quantitative data on animal ecology and physiological significance parameters. At the moment, the use of this technology in domestic animal ecology is limited.