Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark.
Sensors (Basel). 2012;12(6):7587-97. doi: 10.3390/s120607587. Epub 2012 Jun 7.
During the last decades, high-efficiency farming equipment has been developed in the agricultural sector. This has also included efficiency improvement of moving techniques, which include increased working speeds and widths. Therefore, the risk of wild animals being accidentally injured or killed during routine farming operations has increased dramatically over the years. In particular, the nests of ground nesting bird species like grey partridge (Perdix perdix) or pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) are vulnerable to farming operations in their breeding habitat, whereas in mammals, the natural instinct of e.g., leverets of brown hare (Lepus europaeus) and fawns of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) to lay low and still in the vegetation to avoid predators increase their risk of being killed or injured in farming operations. Various methods and approaches have been used to reduce wildlife mortality resulting from farming operations. However, since wildlife-friendly farming often results in lower efficiency, attempts have been made to develop automatic systems capable of detecting wild animals in the crop. Here we assessed the suitability of thermal imaging in combination with digital image processing to automatically detect a chicken (Gallus domesticus) and a rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in a grassland habitat. Throughout the different test scenarios, our study animals were detected with a high precision, although the most dense grass cover reduced the detection rate. We conclude that thermal imaging and digital imaging processing may be an important tool for the improvement of wildlife-friendly farming practices in the future.
在过去的几十年中，农业领域已经开发出了高效的农业设备。这也包括提高移动技术的效率，包括提高工作速度和宽度。因此，野生动物在日常农业作业中意外受伤或死亡的风险在过去几年中急剧增加。特别是，灰胸竹鸡（Perdix perdix）或雉鸡（Phasianus colchicus）等地面筑巢鸟类的巢穴在繁殖栖息地中容易受到农业作业的影响，而在哺乳动物中，例如野兔（Lepus europaeus）的幼兔和狍鹿（Capreolus capreolus）的幼鹿自然本能会躺在植被中以躲避捕食者，这增加了它们在农业作业中受伤或死亡的风险。已经使用了各种方法和方法来减少农业作业对野生动物的死亡率。然而，由于对野生动物友好的农业通常会导致效率降低，因此已经尝试开发能够在作物中自动检测野生动物的自动系统。在这里，我们评估了热成像与数字图像处理相结合自动检测草原栖息地中鸡（Gallus domesticus）和兔（Oryctolagus cuniculus）的适用性。在不同的测试场景中，我们的研究动物都具有很高的检测精度，尽管最密集的草丛覆盖会降低检测率。我们得出结论，热成像和数字图像处理可能是未来改善对野生动物友好的农业实践的重要工具。
