Bats and Aerial Thermal Surveys

Co-ecology offers an innovative bat monitoring solution that uses a drone-mounted thermal imaging camera to safely, accurately and effectively identify bats leaving or entering a roost. The drone’s unique vantage point can cover large areas as well as areas of complex buildings that are otherwise inaccessible to surveyors. The benefits of this solution are:

Identifies a greater number of roosts than are found by using ground surveyors
Multiple buildings and building elevations can be effectively surveyed by a single drone
Previously inaccessible features (PRFs) can be identified and surveyed
Reduces the quantum of ground surveyors and/or ground-based night vision equipment used

We believe this is the most effective and efficient bat monitoring solution on the market.

Purpose and Applications
To use drone and thermal imaging technology to safely, accurately and effectively identify bats leaving or entering a roost and cover areas of complex buildings that are otherwise inaccessible to surveyors and do that to a greater degree of accuracy than is currently achievable with ground-based observations.
BATS can be utilised in all but the most urban situations or proximity to major airports, and can be of benefit for surveys of everything from a single building up to composite estates and large extensive structures.
This technique is of particular use for the renovation and restoration of historic buildings or large factory complexes, especially those with inaccessible areas, roofs and elevations that cannot be viewed from the ground due to obstructions or health and safety constraints.

Background and Protocols
The results of our R&D project have demonstrated that the BATS methodology identifies a greater number of roosts than are found by using ground surveyors, that multiple buildings and building elevations can be effectively surveyed by a single drone, that previously inaccessible features (PRFs) can be identified and surveyed and that it is consequently possible to reduce the quantum of ground surveyors and/or ground based night vision equipment used. We have also established that the use of auto analysis AI driven software can produce much faster and more accurate results then observation of the thermal videos post survey. To that end we have partnered with Wildlife Imaging Systems who carried out analysis of all of our drone and ground night vision aid recordings during the research period.

Co-ecology are registered with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as a commercial drone operator, hold a regularly updated Operations Manual, are registered as an operator with Drone Cloud, hold all necessary insurances and only use pilots with a Flyer ID and up to date certificates for flying drones over 250gr.

When operating near known or suspected bat roosts we only use experienced pilots who hold a current bat survey licence.
Prior to each flight, a site-specific risk assessment is carried out to determine the presence or otherwise of any restricted airspace and the presence of constraining features such as power lines, uninvolved members of the public and livestock.
The surveyors run through a site-specific risk assessment to ensure that the height at which the drone is to fly and it’s position relevant to the target building could not cause any direct or indirect disturbance to a bat roost or bats leaving a roost.

What we provide
We can tailor our services to your project requirements and provide a complete package or a subset of those depending on your needs.

Qualified drone pilots and bat licensed surveyors
The provision of one or more Mavic 3T drones
Daylight RGB flight over the target building/s
Sufficient batteries/power to fly for two hours (or more by request)
Take off and landing pads and lights
Full commercial PI/PL insurances
CAA authorisation
Pre-survey site assessment
RAMS
Applications to fly in restricted airspace where necessary
Full spectrum audio recordings from a single ground location
Data delivery via a secure area of our website

Deliverables
The information we collect is in the form of very data heavy mp4 video files which we submit to our partners at Wildlife Imaging Systems who conduct the software analysis and supply us with an initial set of summary still images. Our ecologists will then filter those images and reduce them only to those where bat activity has been detected. Where a daylight RGB fight has been conducted we will use proprietary software to create 3D models or orthomosaic. We can then supply you with the follow outputs via a secure area on our website:

A written summary of bat emergence and activity
Auto analysed still images in jpeg format and coded by time
Audio data, either analysed or raw
A 3D model of the target structure/s
A plan orthomosaic of the buildings and/or site
Raw video files can be supplied by request and saved to an external solid state hard drive

"I am suitably impressed by what has been produced, especially given how little we saw across both nights compare to what can be seen in the data. I’m very excited to see where you go from here with using the drone, so please do keep in touch with developments, and of course it would be great to have you back on site in the future." Ieuan Donovan, Estate Coordinator at the Museum of Wales.

Training
In partnership with Drone Pilot Academy, we are developing a bespoke training course for 2025 to teach the practicalities of implementing the new protocol to existing qualified drone pilots and a combined package of a CAA General Visual Line of Sight (GVC) course incl. Practical Flight Training and implementation of BATS. Please contact us or Drone Pilot Academy to register your interest.

BATS Consultancy
This is an intrinsically complex survey technique to implement with the inherent risks to wildlife and people, technically difficult night flying, hardware, software, training insurances etc. If you think it’s something that your organisation may wish to explore we can provide a bespoke consultation service including an opportunity to fly at night yourself.

Get in touch!
If you think we can be of service please call our office on 01273 031566 or email BATS@co-ecology.co.uk