A drone, 7 GoPro cameras, 2 Wi-Fi GoPro set off remotes, a Canon DSLR, a number of digital camera lenses, 7 heavy responsibility tripods, eight reminiscence playing cards, eight walkie-talkies, 7 excessive capability energy banks, a anemometer, numerous charging and knowledge switch cables, an optically stabilizing binocular, a 4TB exterior laborious drive, all packed in two black navy grade pelican circumstances. I nonetheless bear in mind the glances that I bought from folks on the airports whereas bringing all my analysis gear from the USA to India in the summertime of 2017. I seemed like a person on a mission… an important mission. It was close to sure that I might be pulled out on the safety verify at each airport. I had my elevator pitch prepared on how all these devices had been to assist me unravel the mysteries of the flying dragon!
I used to be touring to the Agumbe Rainforest Analysis Station (ARRS); nestled within the Western Ghats of Karnataka, the Agumbe rainforest is dwelling to considered one of many species of gliding lizards belonging to the genus Draco present in Asia. Famously known as the flying dragons of the animal kingdom, these magnificent, but cryptic creatures usually are not your typical gliders. Measuring roughly a palm size, they launch from treetops and unfold their wing like Batman’s cape. As soon as airborne, they deftly manoeuvre the jungle maze, actively controlling their aerial descent and overlaying distances over 100 occasions their physique size in lower than a number of seconds. When it is time to land, they reorient themselves like a parachute deploying from a fighter jet, slowing down and touchdown on their supposed goal tree.
My aim was to know the thriller behind their easy and well-choreographed gliding behaviour, and the devices had been the important thing to unlock this thriller.
So, what was my recreation plan? My staff and I might arrange a makeshift flight area cordoning off two bushes within the jungle. One can be the takeoff tree and the opposite, the touchdown tree. Lizards can be caught and launched on the takeoff tree. The 7 GoPro cameras — 5 mounted on tripods and one every on the takeoff and touchdown bushes — would concurrently file a glide from totally different angles. Every digital camera was linked to an influence financial institution in order that it could possibly be repeatedly charged for prolonged bouts of recording. The walkie-talkies had been held on the tripod into which I might communicate and file audio notes (ambient temperature, wind pace, animal behaviour), and in addition use the audio to sync frames throughout all cameras. The Wi-Fi distant would set off begin/ cease recording for all of the cameras. The cables had been the underlying community connecting every part collectively. All these devices needed to work in unison for the submit recording computer-vision wizardry to work and sew all of the views collectively and produce three-dimensional place knowledge. This is able to kind the premise of all my evaluation.
Did it work? As is the case with most issues in life, some improvisation (‘jugaad’) was required. The primary ‘jugaad’ got here with the GoPro cameras. Being motion cameras, GoPros are ultra-portable and rugged, able to dealing with excessive (kind of) situations. Or a minimum of that is what I believed. Within the sizzling and humid tropical climate, when temperatures reached near 35C, a number of of the cameras would invariably overheat and routinely swap off. Shedding any of the cameras was like shedding a bit of a jigsaw puzzle — with out it, the image can be incomplete. This was sure to occur, and a repair was vital. We sourced plastic plates from the close by city as private umbrellas for every digital camera. This didn’t assist. We painted the plates white to mirror daylight higher. This didn’t work both. Time was working out, particularly provided that I had only a month earlier than the monsoon hit and the lizards’ exercise dropped drastically.
Utilizing plastic plates to maintain the warmth of the GoPros
Photograph Credit score: Pranav Khandelwal
Enter Shankar CM, the station manager-cum-electronics wizard. Inside a number of hours of reconsidering our choices, we determined to construct private cooling rigs for every digital camera. Due to Shankar’s ingenuity, we sourced supplies from the close by city and pc followers from Bangalore. However the logistics posed one other dilemma. There is no such thing as a supply service and Agumbe is past Amazon and Flipkart. So Shankar got here up with one other native answer. The conductor of a state bus on the Bangalore-Agumbe route delivered the followers for us from a neighborhood store in Bangalore. Shankar spent a number of days making custom-made circuits to energy the followers utilizing the ability bricks. Lo and behold, every digital camera had a private cooling system with a security web round it to stop any hurt to the lizard from the spinning blades. The ability financial institution would now cost the digital camera and run the fan. We did a take a look at run and the cameras might now run for greater than four hours with out powering off.
The second ‘jugaad’ – the dragon catcher. We needed to spot (utilizing binoculars) and catch lizards perched on tall areca palms in order that they may then be launched within the flight area for recording. The lizards had been typically excessive up within the bushes and it was a battle working round looking for one which was inside arm’s attain. Shankar’s intelligent creations got here to the rescue once more. Utilizing tripod poles and a steel tong, Shankar was in a position to make a protracted pole (6m) with a horseshoe formed wire hooked up to the tong at one finish which was wrapped with a thick tender padding and material hanging from it. A string linked to the horseshoe formed wire hung on the different finish. When pulled, the string would shut the horseshoe, wrapping it across the tree trunk; this may pressure the lizard to climb downwards, and proper into our ready palms! This dragon catcher might sound rudimentary and will not immediately qualify as ‘tech’, however this contraption proved to be one of the helpful items of gadget within the forest to seize lizards for recording.
I can go on and on about using know-how – how the drone helped map the jungle panorama to measure the lizard territory, to using DSLR digital camera to seize qualitative behaviour knowledge and all the gorgeous photos of the work that you just see right here. However none of this may have been attainable with out the group of like-minded, curious people who helped me arrange and use the devices that enabled knowledge assortment in ways in which weren’t attainable earlier than. I’ll most likely exit on a limb and say that it was these devices that allowed me to fulfill so many individuals, share my love for analysis, and kind a group which I now name the ‘Draco household’.
The ultimate cooling rig utilizing pc followers
Photograph Credit score: Pranav Khandelwal
Pranav Khandelwal is an Indian researcher fascinated by the workings of the pure world round us. He research the underlying processes that allow animals to maneuver in advanced spatial environments and the way it may be utilized to real-world purposes. His analysis closely depends on utilizing consumer-grade know-how as a instrument to amass behavioural knowledge in real-world settings.
Shankar CM focuses on custom-made options for Ecological analysis tools. He has labored in distant places in India engaged on tasks associated to animal monitoring and conservation.
This collection is an initiative by the Nature Conservation Basis, beneath their programme Nature Communication to encourage nature content material in all Indian languages. Should you’re concerned with writing on nature and birds, please replenish this form.
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