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Drones fly to rescue of Amazon wildlife
MAMIRAUA RESERVE, Brazil, Aug 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A hoarse sound abruptly
wakes visitors staying at a floating house that serves as a base for
environmentalists on the Jaraua river in the Amazon rainforest.
During flood season, the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve —
located 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the Amazonas state capital Manaus —
fills with water.
For researchers from the Mamiraua Institute and WWF-Brazil, that means
their nearest neighbor is a caiman they call Dominique. It has decided to
squat for the day at the end of their house.
But the surprising noise was something else.
“Don’t worry! That’s just the river dolphins breathing. It’s scary in the
middle of the night, right?” biologist Andre Coelho says.
The next day, scientists got into two boats, slowly navigating the endless
spread of water-filled forest. In this primeval landscape, the researchers
used a drone to help them watch the Amazon’s pink river dolphins, whose
scientific name is Inia geoffrensis.
The voyage in late June, which AFP was invited to follow, was the last in
the series of a project called EcoDrones, which monitors populations of the
pink river dolphin and another type, the tucuxi, or Sotalia fluviatilis.
“We need to understand their behavior and habits so that we can propose
policies for their preservation,” said Marcelo Oliveira, from the World
Wildlife Fund-Brazil.
Drones “are a tool that will reduce costs and speed up the
investigations,” said oceanographer Miriam Marmontel, from the Mamiraua
Institute.
The expedition is using new thermal imaging cameras to allow work to
continue at night.
“We can observe the animals at times when before it was impossible,”
Oliveira said.
Some of the research will be sent to the University of Liverpool in
association with WWF-Brazil, with hopes of developing an algorithm that will
allow scientists to identify every one of the dolphins during their
observations.
“There are many different Amazons in what we call the Amazon jungle,” said
Marmontel.
“Our monitoring means we can understand how to preserve animals in each
region — what are the dangers and how they can be faced.”
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1008 hrs