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Abstract：
Thermal imaging technology is a developing field in wildlife management. Most thermal imaging work in wildlife science has been limited to larger ungulates and surface-dwelling mammals. Little work has been undertaken on the use of thermal imagers to detect fossorial animals and/or their burrows. Survey methods such as white-light spotlighting can fail to detect the presence of burrows (and therefore the animals within), particularly in areas where vegetation obscures burrows. Thermal imagers offer an opportunity to detect the radiant heat from these burrows, and therefore the presence of the animal, particularly in vegetated areas. Thermal imaging technology has become increasingly available through the provision of smaller, more cost-effective units. Their integration with drone technology provides opportunities for researchers and land managers to utilize this technology in their research/management practices.We investigated the ability of both consumer (AUD$65,000) mounted on drones to detect rabbit burrows (warrens) and entrances in the landscape as compared to visual assessment.Thermal imagery and visual inspection detected active rabbit warrens when vegetation was scarce. The presence of vegetation was a significant factor in detecting entrances (p < .001, α = 0.05). The consumer imager did not detect as many warren entrances as either the professional imager or visual inspection (p = .009, α = 0.05). Active warren entrances obscured by vegetation could not be accurately identified on exported imagery from the consumer imager and several false-positive detections occurred when reviewing this footage.We suggest that the exportable frame rate (Hz) was the key factor in image quality and subsequent false-positive detections. This feature should be considered when selecting imagers and suggest that a minimum export rate of 30 Hz is required. Thermal imagers are a useful additional tool to aid in identification of entrances for active warrens and professional imagers detected more warrens and entrances than either consumer imagers or visual inspection.
摘要：
热成像技术是野生动物管理的一个发展领域。野生动物科学中的大多数热成像工作仅限于较大的有蹄类动物和表面居住的哺乳动物。关于使用热成像仪检测动物和/或其洞穴的工作很少。诸如白光聚焦照明之类的调查方法可能无法检测到洞穴（以及其中的动物）的存在，特别是在植被掩盖洞穴的地区。热成像仪提供了一个机会来检测这些洞穴的辐射热，因此动物的存在，特别是在植被丰富的地区。通过提供更小的热成像技术，更具成本效益的单位。他们与无人机技术的集成为研究人员和土地管理者提供了在其研究/管理实践中利用该技术的机会。与视觉评估相比，我们调查了安装在无人机上的消费者（AUD$65,000）检测兔子洞穴（warrens）和景观入口的能力。当植被稀少时，热成像和目视检查发现了活跃的兔子。植被的存在是检测入口的重要因素（p<.001，α=0.05）。消费者成像仪没有检测到与专业成像仪或视觉检查一样多的沃伦入口（p=.009，α=0.05）。在消费者成像仪的导出图像上无法准确识别被植被遮挡的活跃沃伦入口，并且在查看此镜头时发生了几次假阳性检测。我们建议可输出帧速率（Hz）是图像质量和随后的假阳性检测的关键因素。选择成像器时应考虑此功能，并建议需要30Hz的最小输出速率。热成像仪是一种有用的附加工具，可以帮助识别活跃的警示器的入口，而专业成像仪检测到的警示器和入口比消费者成像仪或视觉检查更多。
