On the Effectiveness of UAS for Anti-Poaching in the African Arid Savanna

This paper describes a field study that examined the effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in anti-poaching enforcement in parks and game reserves. In the field study, a UAV attempted to spot mock poachers while the mock poachers tried to spot the UAV. The field study was conducted at N/aan ku se, an operational game reserve in the central region of Namibia. In total, 118 trials were completed, providing 236 UAV-poacher interdiction scenarios. Of these, 198 were during the day, 152 with a quadcopter and 46 with a fixed-wing. Live spotting success during the day varied due to the hiding behavior of the mock poachers, with the highest and lowest success rates of spotting being 86% for poachers in the open and 25% for poachers hiding under canopy cover. The UAVs were demonstrated to be a potentially effective tool for anti-poaching patrol and interdiction, in part, because of their ability to spot poachers. The pursuit of integrating the UAV into current anti-poaching patrol and interdiction efforts in arid savanna landscapes is strongly recommended.