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State of knowledge: Antarctic wildlife response to unmanned aerial systems

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Abstract

The personal, commercial, and scientific use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in Antarctica has increased dramatically in recent years. Due to the potential benefits for, and negative impacts to, sensitive Antarctic wildlife, the use of UAS (also called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) or drones) is a widely discussed topic. Accordingly, an assessment of the current state of UAS-wildlife response research and recommendations for future work is needed. This paper summarizes recent research and the expert opinion of several national Antarctic science programs in order to support Antarctic conservation policy discussions and inform forthcoming research. It encapsulates the current knowledge on the impact of UAS on Antarctic wildlife and the recommendations of the Action Group (AG) on ‘Development of a satellite-based, Antarctic-wide, remote sensing approach to monitor bird and animal populations’ of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) for the compilation of guidelines.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the participants of the workshop ‘Drones and Antarctic Biology’ of the SCAR Action Group on ‘Development of Antarctic-wide remote sensing approach to monitor bird and animal populations’ held on July 9, 2017 at XII SCAR Biology Symposium in Leuven who took part on the discussions of the section ‘Avoidance of disturbance of birds and seals: Recommendations for guidelines for CEP’ for the fruitful discussion that influenced this document: Alison Cleary, Collin Harris, Hannes Grämer, Fritz Hertel, Brigitte Heylen, Mike Goebel, Mark Hindell, Erik Kusch, Daniel Prowaznik, Raphael Ritter, Martin Senf, Fiona Shanhun and George Watters.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Thuringian Institute of Sustainability and Climate Protection, Leutragraben 1, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Osama Mustafa

  2. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain

    Andrés Barbosa

  3. Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division, NOAA-NMFS-SWFSC, La Jolla, USA

    Douglas J. Krause

  4. Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany

    Hans-Ulrich Peter & Marie-Charlott Rümmler

  5. Universidade de Lisboa, Centro de Estudos Geográficos - IGOT, Lisbon, Portugal

    Gonçalo Vieira

Authors
  1. Osama Mustafa
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  2. Andrés Barbosa
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  3. Douglas J. Krause
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  4. Hans-Ulrich Peter
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  5. Gonçalo Vieira
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  6. Marie-Charlott Rümmler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Osama Mustafa.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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Mustafa, O., Barbosa, A., Krause, D.J. et al. State of knowledge: Antarctic wildlife response to unmanned aerial systems. Polar Biol 41, 2387–2398 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2363-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2363-9

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