by Mark MacAllister
September 27, 2001
Page 1 : A New Way to Manage Wildlife
In late July 2001, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge began experiments with thermal imaging (also known as thermography). Thermography cameras work by measuring the amount of infrared radiation emitted by living and non-living objects.
This field report features video and other images gathered as the FWS team located a single wolf and tracked it for a short period of time using both thermography and standard video. The images were recorded so that they could be replayed and analyzed later.
What is immediately clear is that a wolf (or any warm-blooded animal) is relatively easy to locate in even the thickest undergrowth. Note that, on several occasions, the wolf disappears into heavy underbrush, but is easily located again because its thermal image is so much brighter than that of the surrounding soybean plants and other vegetation.
Compare the IR video image to a standard video image. Notice how the surrounding vegetation, as well as bright sunlight and shadow, can hide the wolf. How difficult do you think it would be to accomplish wolf research using standard video only?
Next Page : Analyzing IR and Standard Video
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4
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