A drone that finds a needle in a wetland: thermal cameras locate New Zealand's rarest nests

Fewer than 50 bittern — shy, camouflaged wetland birds — are thought to remain in Canterbury, and fewer than 1,000 in all of New Zealand. Finding their nests on foot is nearly impossible. So the Department of Conservation is flying drones with thermal cameras over wetlands and lakeshores around Te Waihora / Lake Ellesmere, pairing heat signatures with high-resolution video to pinpoint nesting females for the first time. 'It's like being able to find a needle in a haystack,' says drone operator Daniel Manchester. Knowing where nests are — and whether chicks survive — is the first step to halting the decline.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: tech innovation