Aerial Allies

Our goal is to raise awareness and support for innovative, non-lethal methods to reduce conflicts between wolves and livestock. Instead of using harmful approaches, we are promoting the use of drones to monitor and protect both wolves and farm animals.

We aim to facilitate additional research and validation of these non-lethal methods. By raising awareness and supporting these efforts, we can help create a future where wolves and livestock can coexist peacefully.

2022 Research Findings

Initial research in 2022 monitored territory associated with the Rogue Pack in Oregon. The study ran 85 days, logged just under 216 flight hours, and had 51 interactions with wolves.

Between July 12th & August 1st, there were 11 confirmed depredations with no drone intervention;
During the 85 days with drones added for mitigation, only 2 additional depredations occurred (23 times lower than before).

So Many More Questions...

Although initial research is incredibly promising, there are many questions scientists and researchers want answers for before promoting this non-lethal solution more broadly:

How do wolves (and other wildlife) respond to drone hazing?
Where do they go after they are hazed? Is this just a leaf-blower effect moving wolves into neighboring yards/ranches?
How long does it take for wolves to habituate to where they no longer respond to the drone? When that happens, what can be changed about the drone to reverse the habituation?
Will this work in other areas with wolves or is this unique to SW Oregon?
Can AI be implemented along with autonomous flight to reduce the required personnel hours and create an independent threat detection system that could alert landowners, producers, and agencies of predators in the area to trigger a ground response?
What is the relative cost and effectiveness?

Our Solutions

Awareness: We’ve created our Aerial Allies campaign to raise awareness of this innovative new method to keep wolves and livestock safe;
Funding & Resources: We’ve committed funding to this research project to ensure more questions are answered, and we’re calling on others to become Aerial Allies as well;
Drone Purchasing: Our contributions will help purchase the specific types of drones needed to fulfill ongoing research;
Personnel: Our contributions will help provide the training and procurement of the personnel needed to execute this research;
Technological Limitations: By supporting this research, we are supporting the development of new technological techniques that can be used to enhance drones and limit habituation rates.

Are you ready to become an Aerial Ally?

By supporting this initiative, you are directly contributing to the research necessary to ensure innovative methods like non-lethal drone hazing are utilized in wolf-livestock conflict mitigation.

100% of your donation goes towards this research, The Big Bad Project does not take any portion of your funds for our part in this project.