Cobus Theron - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Address: Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
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Papers by Cobus Theron
International Journal of Remote Sensing, Jan 17, 2019
The proliferation of relatively affordable off-the-shelf drones offers great opportunities for wi... more The proliferation of relatively affordable off-the-shelf drones offers great opportunities for wildlife monitoring and conservation. Similarly the recent reduction in cost of thermal infrared cameras also offers new promise in this field, as they have the advantage over conventional RGB cameras of being able to distinguish animals based on their body heat and being able to detect animals at night. However, the use of drone-mounted thermal infrared cameras comes with several technical challenges. In this paper we address some of these issues, namely thermal contrast problems due to heat from the ground, absorption and emission of thermal infrared radiation by the atmosphere, obscuration by vegetation, and optimizing the flying height of drones for a best balance between covering a large area and being able to accurately image and identify animals of interest. We demonstrate the application of these methods with a case study using field data, and make the first ever detection of the critically endangered riverine rabbit (Bunolagus monticularis) in thermal infrared data. We provide a web-tool so that the community can easily apply these techniques to other studies (http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk/~aricburk/uav_calc/).
International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2019
The proliferation of relatively affordable off-the-shelf drones offers great opportunities for wi... more The proliferation of relatively affordable off-the-shelf drones offers great opportunities for wildlife monitoring and conservation. Similarly the recent reduction in cost of thermal infrared cameras also offers new promise in this field, as they have the advantage over conventional RGB cameras of being able to distinguish animals based on their body heat and being able to detect animals at night. However, the use of drone-mounted thermal infrared cameras comes with several technical challenges. In this paper we address some of these issues, namely thermal contrast problems due to heat from the ground, absorption and emission of thermal infrared radiation by the atmosphere, obscuration by vegetation, and optimizing the flying height of drones for a best balance between covering a large area and being able to accurately image and identify animals of interest. We demonstrate the application of these methods with a case study using field data, and make the first ever detection of the critically endangered riverine rabbit (Bunolagus monticularis) in thermal infrared data. We provide a web-tool so that the community can easily apply these techniques to other studies (http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk/~aricburk/uav_calc/).
Biodiversity and Conservation
Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling has attracted worldwide attention over the past few years as an... more Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling has attracted worldwide attention over the past few years as an emerging approach to characterising and monitoring biodiversity, and has become particularly important for species that are rare, elusive or endangered. Most animal studies to date have focused on aquatic taxa; studies on other metazoan taxa, particularly wildlife in terrestrial environments, are scarce, with only a handful utilizing soil sources. We aimed to investigate the use of DNA barcoding from soil eDNA in (1) detecting rare/elusive/threatened species and (2) as a tool to investigate and potentially monitor range distributions. Through extensive eDNA sampling along the west coast of South Africa, we aimed to refine the distributions of four golden mole species thought to occur there, and specifically to determine whether De Winton’s golden mole, Cryptochloris wintoni (IUCN Critically Endangered; Possibly Extinct), is in fact extant or extinct. Sequences were generated for three b...
International Journal of Remote Sensing, Jan 17, 2019
The proliferation of relatively affordable off-the-shelf drones offers great opportunities for wi... more The proliferation of relatively affordable off-the-shelf drones offers great opportunities for wildlife monitoring and conservation. Similarly the recent reduction in cost of thermal infrared cameras also offers new promise in this field, as they have the advantage over conventional RGB cameras of being able to distinguish animals based on their body heat and being able to detect animals at night. However, the use of drone-mounted thermal infrared cameras comes with several technical challenges. In this paper we address some of these issues, namely thermal contrast problems due to heat from the ground, absorption and emission of thermal infrared radiation by the atmosphere, obscuration by vegetation, and optimizing the flying height of drones for a best balance between covering a large area and being able to accurately image and identify animals of interest. We demonstrate the application of these methods with a case study using field data, and make the first ever detection of the critically endangered riverine rabbit (Bunolagus monticularis) in thermal infrared data. We provide a web-tool so that the community can easily apply these techniques to other studies (http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk/~aricburk/uav_calc/).
International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2019
The proliferation of relatively affordable off-the-shelf drones offers great opportunities for wi... more The proliferation of relatively affordable off-the-shelf drones offers great opportunities for wildlife monitoring and conservation. Similarly the recent reduction in cost of thermal infrared cameras also offers new promise in this field, as they have the advantage over conventional RGB cameras of being able to distinguish animals based on their body heat and being able to detect animals at night. However, the use of drone-mounted thermal infrared cameras comes with several technical challenges. In this paper we address some of these issues, namely thermal contrast problems due to heat from the ground, absorption and emission of thermal infrared radiation by the atmosphere, obscuration by vegetation, and optimizing the flying height of drones for a best balance between covering a large area and being able to accurately image and identify animals of interest. We demonstrate the application of these methods with a case study using field data, and make the first ever detection of the critically endangered riverine rabbit (Bunolagus monticularis) in thermal infrared data. We provide a web-tool so that the community can easily apply these techniques to other studies (http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk/~aricburk/uav_calc/).
Biodiversity and Conservation
Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling has attracted worldwide attention over the past few years as an... more Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling has attracted worldwide attention over the past few years as an emerging approach to characterising and monitoring biodiversity, and has become particularly important for species that are rare, elusive or endangered. Most animal studies to date have focused on aquatic taxa; studies on other metazoan taxa, particularly wildlife in terrestrial environments, are scarce, with only a handful utilizing soil sources. We aimed to investigate the use of DNA barcoding from soil eDNA in (1) detecting rare/elusive/threatened species and (2) as a tool to investigate and potentially monitor range distributions. Through extensive eDNA sampling along the west coast of South Africa, we aimed to refine the distributions of four golden mole species thought to occur there, and specifically to determine whether De Winton’s golden mole, Cryptochloris wintoni (IUCN Critically Endangered; Possibly Extinct), is in fact extant or extinct. Sequences were generated for three b...