Goat control in You Yangs State Park
We partnered with Parks Victoria and ProCon Pest and Wildlife, utilising cutting-edge drone technology, to efficiently locate and guide hunters to elusive goats in You Yangs State Park, doubling nightly control effectiveness and enhancing overall program efficiency.
Customer
Parks Victoria
Location
You Yangs Regional Park
Equipment Used
- DJI Matrice 300 with H20T and LED Spotlight
Licences and approvals
- Night operation
Problem
Goats are an introduced species to Australia, and have inhabited many remote and hard to access areas, making them difficult to control. A small population of goats have been living within the You Yangs Regional Park for decades, with previous control efforts never managing to fully eradicate them from the site. As with any pest eradication programs, as the population size decreases, the difficulty and costs associated with controlling the few that are left rises exponentially. This is mostly due to the few remaining animals being difficult to find.
Solution
By working in close collaboration with Parks Victoria and professional pest control company ProCon, FMS was able to quickly locate remaining goats and guide ProCon’s hunters directly toward them. When the goats moved, FMS delivered real time location information to the hunters so that the control program efficacy was greatly increased. The number of goats controlled per night was more than doubled by using drones.
"Using thermal drones to locate and track target species has been a huge game changer for us. It is more efficient, more humane and safer for the general public and field operational teams alike."
Brad B, Procon Pest and Wildlife
