Flying over animals

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Hello - I am doing a project for a Wildlife Sanctuary and some time ago, I saw a chart that someone posted that listed various animals and the altitude you could fly over them without them getting upset. I had read a posting of someone flying low over bears with heart rate monitors that when up when the drone got too close. i.e. I can fly over my horse at about 100' and he seems to not notice but gets a bit edgy when I am at 50'. Does anyone have a copy of this chart? Thanks
 
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Welcome to the forum.

I've never seen that chart but it would be very specific to the aircraft and the animal not just the animal. Different sUAS make different noises (not just the ones we hear) and different animals react differently.

For example: My old Phantom3Pro drives donkeys crazy at hundreds of feet away but my Yuneec H520 barely gets their attention.

Good luck and Safe Flights :)
 
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Welcome to the forum.

I've never seen that chart but it would be very specific to the aircraft and the animal not just the animal. Different sUAS make different noises (not just the ones we hear) and different animals react differently.

For example: My old Phantom3Pro drives donkeys crazy at hundreds of feet away but my Yuneec H520 barely gets their attention.

Good luck and Safe Flights :)

Thanks, the chart I saw was somewhat generic but just looking for guidance especially over exotics and non-farm animals. SG
 
Welcome to the forum.
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching .
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I've heard you want to have obstacle avoidance turned off when around animals as that produces a high pitch noise we can't hear that can really bother some animals. Now I've never tested it, but it sounds like good advice to follow anyway.
 
I've heard you want to have obstacle avoidance turned off when around animals as that produces a high pitch noise we can't hear that can really bother some animals. Now I've never tested it, but it sounds like good advice to follow anyway.

I thought (and I stress thought) that OA was light.
 
My ex has a farm with about 11 horses and the neighbor a herd of cows. In both cases, when flying at about 8 feet above the ground, they all ran over to inspect the aircraft. I was shocked to discover their curiosity. Flying around the pasture, the horses all followed it around. Some of the cows followed as well but the others became disinterested once they inspected it. I believe it depends on the animal and that all the fuss about disturbing wildlife, while concerning, is over blown.
 
Living in a national forest with a P4P I've flown over deer does and bucks at 50' just checking some ideals out but normally no lower than 100', but turkey is a totally different story.
Thing to keep in mind anything that has natural predators from air may not like it.
 
I've thought a lot about this, too. I've got a friend with a drone and horses. His horses don't even notice because they're used to it. On the other hand, a few months back, I was 200 yards away and across a highway from some cows. I didn't think they even noticed me, but when I started the props, they all jumped a bit. After that, not much, but they reacted.

I'd say a safe bet is, the less domesticated, the stronger the reaction. If this is something you're hired for, and it time allows, maybe fly around some and see if they can get used to it. Maybe a dumb suggestion.
 
I've heard you want to have obstacle avoidance turned off when around animals as that produces a high pitch noise we can't hear that can really bother some animals. Now I've never tested it, but it sounds like good advice to follow anyway.
This is totally unrelated, but regarding pitch, I've powered up an electronic flash in a cave full of bats, and they immediately stuck themselves to the wall. When I turned it off, they flew around again. Never got a decent picture of them in flight. I would guess other animals may have the ability to hear high pitches as well. In the bats' case, it probably jammed their sonor.
 
I will say this, I have done several video of my wife's group's drill team's on horses some horses don't like it at all.
So I have helped them and there horses get used to the sound of a drone because allot of rodeo's has drones videos them. Just food for thought.
 
Hello - I am doing a project for a Wildlife Sanctuary and some time ago, I saw a chart that someone posted that listed various animals and the altitude you could fly over them without them getting upset. I had read a posting of someone flying low over bears with heart rate monitors that when up when the drone got too close. i.e. I can fly over my horse at about 100' and he seems to not notice but gets a bit edgy when I am at 50'. Does anyone have a copy of this chart? Thanks
Welcome to Phantom Pilots from Dayton Ohio USA! I've found the low noise props on my P4P do help a bit, they tend to still be very noisy compared the the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic Pro Platinum. Fly safe and have fun!
 
I thought (and I stress thought) that OA was light.

Thanks for the correct! I was thinking of visual positioning. It sounds like it uses a camera and sonar. So I guess as long as that's off, you shouldn't have the sonar driving the dogs crazy.
 
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