The NSW Wildlife Drone Hub Dashboard provides near real-time insights into targeted animal counts from drone surveys conducted across New South Wales (NSW). These surveys are conducted by pilots trained by the NSW Wildlife Drone Hub (the Drone Hub) from a range of organisations including the Department of Planning and Environment (the department), universities and industry. The aim of the dashboard is to plot the extent of targeted drone surveys in NSW as well as provide valuable knowledge about the biodiversity in local areas.

Making the most of the Dashboard

Homepage

The homepage summarises up-to-date drone survey data. Data can be filtered by selecting a species of interest (for example the greater glider) from the animal detection list or by dragging the date slider to a desired time-period. Filtering the data will change the number of animals detected (displayed on the line graph), the type of animals detected (listed) and the Local Government Area (LGAs) shaded on the map. LGAs are shaded based on the number of drone surveys undertaken.

Discover animals by Local Government Area (LGA) 

Search for animals in your LGA by selecting ‘Explore by LGA’ or selecting the map of NSW from the dashboard’s homepage.  

To select an LGA, use the dropdown box to tick the LGA of interest, or select the LGA from the map on the left-hand side. This will filter the data so that only drone surveys done in that LGA are shown on the map and the top five animals detected will be shown in the square pie graph. Filtering for a particular LGA will also change the ‘Total area (ha)’ surveyed and number of surveys completed in that LGA. You can also filter data by dragging the date slider.

How drone surveys are performed 

Drones with a heat sensing camera are flown at night when the forest is cool. Drones fly in a systematic pattern. When a drone pilot identifies a potential animal sighting (Figure 1), the drone halts to verify the species. Our drones have powerful spotlights they can turn on so that the animal can be photographed and identified using a zoom lens (Figure 2).

Animals found using drones

Each drone survey uncovers a range of animals which are grouped into: those that are flying (aerial), those living in trees (arboreal), and those dwelling on the forest floor (ground species). Pilots record if the animal can be positively identified. To view a library of drone imagery, go to the NSW Wildlife Drone Hub webpage.

For some survey plots there will be no animals detected, but this doesn’t mean that there were no animals present, it might just mean none of the target animal were found (for example if the aim of a survey was to find koalas, and no koalas were found the survey will show 0 animals detected).

Explore the data further

For comprehensive records of species sightings from various animal surveys, including those not involving drones, visit NSW BioNet, the repository for biodiversity data products managed by the department. It's important to note that the dashboard displays fauna detections only from drone surveys conducted in near real-time. Therefore, not all data is yet recorded in BioNet. The data from department-conducted drone surveys will be submitted to BioNet upon survey or project completion. Collaborators and contractor pilots are encouraged to contribute to BioNet but not obligated to do so.

The Drone Hub is funded by the NSW Government's Digital Restart Fund. The Drone Hub aims to accelerate the uptake of drone technology for scientific biodiversity surveys. The Drone Hub, a team of dedicated scientists, offers specialist training to pilots so that they can operate drones and collect scientific data in a rigorous and repeatable manner. The Drone Hub also supports the pilots by offering cloud-based storage and analysis of the data collected.  Since the Drone Hub began in February 2022, the use of drones for biodiversity monitoring has rapidly gained momentum in NSW. This has had a transformative effect on wildlife detection and all the data captured is stored securely to benefit the community.