This project expands on efforts to develop novel techniques to quantify wildlife abundance, including conducting aerial waterfowl surveys with unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) and terrestrial large…

The Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 2 awarded The University of New Mexico $155,000 under the Fish and Wildlife Coordination and Assistance program (CFDA 15.664) to develop novel techniques for quantifying wildlife abundance. Specifically, the University will deploy unmanned aerial systems to image waterfowl and cranes on refuges in New Mexico and Texas, identify species, and provide location data to the Service. Simultaneously, the University will continue developing automated abundance estimation methods from camera traps and species labeling within archived camera trap imagery, relying heavily on citizen science. This work aims to substantially elevate the use of remote imagery acquisition to provide priority biological data to the Service in a less expensive and safer manner, thereby enriching conservation and management analyses. The period of performance is January 5, 2023 through September 30, 2025.

This project expands on efforts to develop novel techniques to quantify wildlife abundance, including conducting aerial waterfowl surveys with unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) and terrestrial large mammal surveys using camera traps. This stage of the effort will focus on wintering habitat areas in new mexico and texas by deploying an UAS to image waterfowl and cranes on refuges, identify them by type, and provide data describing waterfowl type and location to the fish and wildlife service (FWS) to subsequently analyze for abundance estimation. This work is operational, running the workflow from image collection, imagery correction, animal identification, and data output. Simultaneously, this will continue to develop methods for automated abundance estimation from camera traps and labeling species within archival camera trap imagery. Both efforts rely heavily on citizen science. Overall, this work will substantially elevate the use of remote imagery acquisition to acquire priority biological data. Such work is less expensive to acquire remotely and safer for employees. The FWS will acquire more species data than previously possible, substantially enriching analyses, thereby producing more informed, targeted and effective conservation and management actions.