Unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly used for non-invasive wildlife monitoring and livestock welfare assessment, enabling data collection at scales impossible for ground observers.
Drone technology offers a welfare-positive monitoring approach that reduces the need for capture, handling, and human proximity that generate welfare harms in research and management contexts. Non-invasive monitoring is always welfare-preferable to invasive alternatives where equivalent data quality can be achieved. The expanding capabilities of drone-mounted sensors — thermal, acoustic, multispectral, and high-resolution visual — are making non-invasive monitoring feasible for an increasing range of welfare assessment questions. Investment in drone monitoring technology is simultaneously an investment in reducing research-related welfare harm and improving welfare monitoring coverage.