The Drone of Drones: A Preliminary Investigation of Drone Noise and Animal Welfare in New Zealand Sheep

Abstract

The use of drone technology on farms is a critically under-researched area of animal welfare, particularly as their use has become increasingly common and accessible to New Zealand sheep farmers. Drone technology is loud, and the welfare implications of the noise and noise reduction technology is unknown with few studies to inform both regulation and the future development of the technology. In this study I investigated the effect of dampening drone noise on the stress and habituation of domestic sheep. Due to resource constraints, this study was unable to directly address all the gaps in the literature. Instead, the preliminary investigation aimed to pave the way for future research, by establishing a study method, identifying likely pitfalls and investigating the effect of noise dampening technology on sheep and their welfare. In the absence of prior research, this was done using an initial pre-trial investigation of 6 sheep to confirm the safety of the method, followed by full trials with three different study groups. The two subsequent full trials used 18 sheep each, allocating 6 to a control group, 'quiet' drone exposure group, or 'loud' drone exposure group. Mavic pro 2 drones were used for flyover treatments. The 'quiet' drone was equipped with Dotterels proprietary acoustic nanofiber shroud. The 'loud' drone was initially equipped with commercially available propeller cages, which were replaced by commercially available propeller guards after they were irreparably damaged. Sheep, as cognitively capable mammals, have stress factors that are both physiological and psychological. This necessitated the concurrent investigation of both heartrate data (n=4) measured byPolarH10 chest strap monitors, as well as behavioural analysis (n=6) provided by an animal behaviour expert. The investigation was unable to conclusively identify statistically valid physiological trends, but through behavioural analysis found that the acoustic shroud substantially reduced animal stress and habituation time when compared to the louder drone. Whilst this study was incapable of directly addressing the needs for regulation and drone design innovation; recommendations for future research were made.