Abstract
Using small drones to photo-identify Antillean manatees: a novel method for monitoring an endangered marine mammal in the Caribbean Sea
Highlights
The Antillean manatee Trichechus manatus manatus is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee T. manatus and is considered Endangered by the IUCN (Self-Sullivan & Mignucci-Giannoni 2008) due to threats such as entanglement, poaching, watercraft collision, and habitat loss (Castelblanco-Martínez et al 2012)
Fourteen individuals were photo-identified at St. George’s Caye (SGC), 4 of which were re-sighted on different days
Small commercial drones are low-cost and widely available, offering a versatile tool for sirenian management and conservation projects. These systems are equipped with cameras of sufficient resolution for overhead photo-ID at low altitudes (< 30 m, in this study) and can hover in stationary flight, allowing the capture of good quality photographs and videos of surfacing marine mammals (Durban et al 2015)
Summary
The Antillean manatee Trichechus manatus manatus is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee T. manatus and is considered Endangered by the IUCN (Self-Sullivan & Mignucci-Giannoni 2008) due to threats such as entanglement, poaching, watercraft collision, and habitat loss (Castelblanco-Martínez et al 2012). In the Regional Management Plan for the. West Indian manatee (Quintana-Rizzo & Reynolds 2010), long-term and longitudinal studies of individually identifiable animals are recommended to determine the survival rates, reproduction rates, site fidelity, and movement patterns of manatee populations. The techniques typically used to identify individuals, such as capturing and tagging animals, are expensive, invasive, and require extensive effort. Endang Species Res 41: 79–90, 2020 for tracking manatees in regions with limited available research funds is essential to the species' longterm preservation (Quintana-Rizzo & Reynolds 2010) These criteria help ensure that all permanent body marks are detected and that the individual can be identified over time and in different areas
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