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US biochemical engineer Frances Arnold takes the million-euro Millennium Technology Prize for pioneering 'directed evolution'.

Countries urged to outlaw possession of wildlife and timber illegally harvested or traded elsewhere

Governments around the world need to pass national laws outlawing the possession of wildlife and timber that has been illegally harvested or traded elsewhere, a new report by the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) urges.

At present, unlisted but endangered flora and fauna can be legally sold in other nations, even if it was illicitly taken from the countries of origin, due to a lack of coverage in the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

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Approval for fracking in North Yorkshire raises the prospect of the controversial technique being allowed at other sites and restarts an intense debate.

Five glimpses inside China's scientific revolution

Court dismisses government bid to uphold seven-year ban on domestic trade in rhino horn - but global ban remains in place

South Africa’s supreme court has dismissed a government bid to uphold a seven-year ban on the domestic trade in rhino horn, an industry group said this week.

The decision has no bearing on a ban on international trade in rhino horn. Potential domestic buyers could include those who see rhino horn as a store of wealth that could appreciate in value and those who want it as a decoration.

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Push for nuclear and gas over renewables could be more costly in the long term, warns UN’s environment chief

The UK government risks slowing the shift to clean energy sources by cutting support for renewable energy and strongly backing gas as a transitional fuel, according to the UN’s environment chief.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told the Guardian that he thought the UK’s push for nuclear and gas over renewables could be more costly in the long term.

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Virtual reality technology used in the gaming industry could be utilised to recreate crime scenes for jurors, researchers claim.

Wu Pinggui talks to the BBC after having an operation to transplant a pig's cornea into his eye.

The scientist and author discusses his legacy - and giving up Twitter

Chinese drinkers may have been brewing beer as many as 5,000 years ago, new research suggests.

From phasing out coal to creating nature reserves, it is the EU which should be taking lectures from the UK, not the other way round

The leading lights of the UK environmental movement would have us believe that a win by the Brexit camp on 23 June would be akin to a natural disaster.

According to them, it is only our membership of the EU that renders our beaches swimmable, our water drinkable and our air almost breathable. Freed from the noble, ceaseless efforts of the ever-vigilant EU, troglodyte Britain would tear up decades of environmental legislation and return to our 1970s roots as the “dirty man” of Europe. This is complete and utter tosh.

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GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: Need to calculate pi while fending off zombies? Dr Karl has found a way to solve both your problems.

Darren Soh, a landscape photographer, creates a composite image that captures the beauty of Singapore's lightning storms.

The ban on GM crops by European countries should be reassessed, the president of UK science body the Royal Society has said.

WEEDS OF THE SEA: A surprising 60-year boom in global octopus, squid and cuttlefish numbers points to long-term changes taking place in the world's oceans, scientists say.

Speaking on Q&A, Christopher Pyne rejects a suggestion that the Coalition’s Direct Action climate policy could operate as a de facto emissions trading scheme, while responding to a question from the audience, Pyne claims the scheme was not intended to work that way. The industry minister and his regular sparring partner, opposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese, were the only two panellists on Monday’s election special, which fell in week three of the eight-week campaign

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BODY IMAGE: Some women say the voice in their head gets kinder as they enter midlife, while other women become more critical of themselves - the difference appears to be related to acceptance of age-related changes, researchers find.

After a successful bid to frack for shale gas in a North Yorkshire village, John Moylan explains how the process works.

Technological advances have provided many benefits for environmental research. Sensors on southern elephant seals have been used to map the Southern Ocean, while tracking devices have given us a new view of mass animal migrations, from birds to zebras.

Miniaturisation of electronics and improvements in reliability and affordability mean that consumer drones (also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs) are now improving scientific research in a host of areas. And they are growing more popular for wildlife management, as well as research.

Wildlife drones can be used in many different ways, from small multi-rotor units that can scare invasive birds away from crops, to fixed-wing aircraft that fly above rainforests to spot orangutan nests. UAVs have also been shown to provide more precise data than traditional ground-based techniques when it comes to monitoring seabird colonies.

Other industries, from mining to window-cleaning, are looking at using drone technology. Some forecasts predict that the global market for commercial applications of UAVs will be valued at more than US$127 billion. Given their usefulness in the biologist’s toolkit, the uptake of UAVs for environmental monitoring is likely to continue.

But this proliferation of drones raises questions about how best to regulate the use of these aircraft, and how to ensure that wildlife do not come to harm.

A UAV-mounted camera provides an aerial view of a Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) in North Sumatra. L. P. Koh Wildlife disturbance

Biologists carrying out field studies are typically interested in animals' natural state, or how their behaviour changes when conditions are altered. So it is important to know whether the UAVs disturb the animals and, if so, exactly how.

Of course, different species in different environments are likely to have very different responses to the presence of a UAV. This will also depend on the type of UAV and how it is used. Our current understanding of wildlife responses is limited.

A team of French and South African biologists observed the reaction of semi-captive and wild birds to UAVs. They found that the approach angle had a significant impact on the birds' reaction, but approach speed, UAV colour and flight repetition did not.

In polar regions, where UAVs may be particularly useful for sampling inaccessible areas, researchers found that Adélie penguins were more alert when a UAV was in range, particularly at low altitudes.

These studies, and similar observational studies on other animals besides birds, provide an initial understanding of wildlife behaviour. But the animals' behaviour is only one aspect of their response – we still need to know what happens to their physiology.

Cardiac bio-loggers fitted to a small number of free-roaming American black bears in northwestern Minnesota have shown that UAV flights increased the bears' heart rates by as much as 123 beats per minute. Even an individual in its winter hibernation den showed stress responses to a UAV flying above.

Interestingly, the bears rarely showed any behavioural response to the drones. This shows that just because animals do not appear visually disturbed, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not stressed.

A code of practice

We have developed a code of best practice, published today in the journal Current Biology, which seeks to mitigate or alleviate potential UAV disturbance to wildlife. It advocates the precautionary principle in lieu of sufficient evidence, encouraging researchers to recognise that wildlife responses are varied, can be hard to detect, and could have severe consequences.

Jarrod Hodgson launches a fixed-wing UAV on Macquarie Island. J. Hodgson

It also provides practical recommendations. The code encourages the use of equipment that minimises the stimulus to wildlife. Using minimum-disturbance flight practices (such as avoiding threatening approach trajectories or sporadic flight movements) is advised. The code also recognises the importance of following civil aviation rules and effective maintenance and training schedules, and using animal ethics processes to provide oversight to UAV experiments.

The code isn’t just food for thought for biologists. It is relevant to all UAV users and regulators, from commercial aerial videographers to hobbyists. Unintentionally or otherwise, such users may find themselves piloting drones close to wildlife.

Our code urges the UAV community to be responsible operators. It encourages awareness of the results of flying in different environments and the use of flight practices that result in minimum wildlife disturbance.

Low-impact conservation

As researchers continue to develop and refine UAV wildlife monitoring techniques, research that quantifies disturbance should be prioritised. This research will need to be multi-faceted, because responses could vary between species or individuals, as well as over time and in different environments. Greater knowledge could help us to draw up species-specific guidelines for drone use, to minimise disturbance on a case-by-case basis.

UAVs are a useful wildlife monitoring tool. We need to proactively develop and implement low-impact monitoring techniques. Doing so will expand our technological arsenal in the battle to manage Earth’s precious and increasingly threatened wildlife.

Lian Pin Koh receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Jarrod Hodgson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Arctic would warm by as much as 20C by 2300 with disastrous impacts if action is not taken on climate change, warns new study

The planet would warm by searing 10C if all fossil fuels are burned, according to a new study, leaving some regions uninhabitable and wreaking profound damage on human health, food supplies and the global economy.

The Arctic, already warming fast today, would heat up even more – 20C by 2300 – the new research into the extreme scenario found.

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