Authors: De Kock, Meyer; Hejcmanová, Pavla;

Unmanned Areal Vehicles (UAV) equipped with image sensors can be an effective tool for large animal surveys depending on species and the environment in which it is used. A range of research in the last decade focused on the application of UAVs as a survey tool for wildlife. Most discuss the methodology focus on the flight path and image acquisition setup and have a single species of interest.
The lack of research on the development of a best practice and standard operating procedure when using UAVs for the survey of wildlife, resulted in gaps, not only when this method is used, however, also on a national and regional legislation level.
Secondly, limited research was done on the ethical use of UAVs for wildlife census and surveys. The cases where ethics was discussed in this research are usually focused on a single species and in most cases fail to address the environmental impact associated and the effect on non-targeted species that coexist in the same area. This lack of research results in unclear legislation on national level with a general question on minimum standards and ethical considerations when these techniques are used.