Drones provide a privileged birds’-eye view for collecting high-resolution imagery formorphometric and behavioral sampling of animals. Biologically meaningful measurements extracted from overhead images require an accurate estimate of altitude, but current commercial drones include inaccurate barometer estimates. Recent proposals for coupling altimeter systems to drones have provided customized, open-source solutions,...
Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs) are fostering novel approaches to marine mammal research, including baleen whale photogrammetry, by providing new observational perspectives. We collected vertical images of 89 gray and 6 blue whales using low cost sUASs to examine the accuracy of image based morphometry. Moreover, measurements from 192 images...