Dolphin doctors could diagnose with drones

“While these methods can be effective, they are also invasive, expensive, logistically complex, and can alter the animals’ behaviour and physiology. This can induce stress, making results harder to interpret,” authors Charlie White and Guido Parra wrote on The Conversation.

“To fix this problem, researchers need tools that allow them to monitor dolphins repeatedly and accurately, while minimising disturbance. One example is drones fitted with thermal cameras.

“Thermal cameras detect heat emitted from surfaces, allowing temperature patterns to be measured remotely. When mounted on drones, they can potentially record this information from above, while animals continue to move freely.

“In the case of dolphins, they have the potential to measure skin temperature and breathing patterns based on the heat emitted from the animals’ blowholes, body and dorsal fin, without having to get close or touch them.”

White and Perra tested the drones with 14 adult common bottlenose dolphins under human care at Sea World, using different heights, camera angles, and environmental conditions.

They discovered that the drone measurements were most accurate at around 10 metres above the dolphin, with the camera positioned directly above.

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“We compared measurements obtained from drones with close-range reference data collected at the same time,” they wrote.

“Body surface temperature was measured using hand-held thermal cameras and breathing rates were calculated from the drone’s visual footage. This allowed us to assess how accurate and reliable the drone measurements were.

“This approach required no restraint or tagging. Drone-based measurements were collected without physical handling of the animals.”

According to White and Perra, this represents a “practical advance in how dolphin vital signs can be monitored in the wild”.

“This approach has the potential to improve our ability to detect physiological changes and examine how dolphin health may vary over time in the wild,” they wrote.

“Combined with behavioural observations, drone-based thermal imaging could help explore links between surface temperatures, breathing patterns and environmental conditions.

“As coastal ecosystems face growing pressure, tools such as thermal drones that allow researchers to monitor wildlife efficiently, repeatedly and non-invasively will become increasingly important.

“They provide a practical addition to the conservation toolbox, helping us better understand, and ultimately protect, dolphins and other animals in a changing ocean.”