17 September 2025
The team at ERA is thrilled to share recent research, published in the journal Ecological Applications, on the efficacy of thermal drones to survey cryptic arboreal nocturnal species such as greater gliders. The ERA team collaborated with scientists at the University of Melbourne to undertake this project, including lead author Dr Ben Wagner.
Our team primarily ran the foot-spotlighting field work component of the research, conducting spotlighting on transects which followed the paths of the drone surveys, as shown in a figure below. This research highlights the benefits of using thermal drones particularly where target species are at low density, where habitat is difficult to traverse safely, and where understorey is dense, restricting views to the canopy.
ERA would like to thank all our staff who undertook spotlighting surveys – it was rough going at times following drone paths from the forest floor! And we’d like to thank Ben and the team at University of Melbourne for the opportunity to collaborate on this important research.
The research paper can be downloaded with free access here: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eap.70091
