Drone, thermal camera used in high-tech search for cavoodle

After two days of searching for their beloved pet, this Northern Rivers family decided to call in the experts.

Shauli, the three-year-old cavoodle, with her owners.

After two days of searching for their beloved pet, a Northern Rivers family decided to call in the experts.

Shauli, a three-year-old cavoodle, was lost in bushland just outside of Byron Bay.

The owners phoned Anne from Arthur & Co Pet Concierge to help and, by 6pm that night, she had contacted SkyStock to help find a drone operator with a thermal camera.

By 5am the next day, Nathan from Industrial Drone Services Australia was onsite searching with his DJI Matrice 300.

"Once the ground temperature rises to close to the body temperature of the target animal, then thermal is less effective, so an early 5am start was required," he said.

"I initially conducted a high-level overview of the search area, followed by a tight grid search pattern over high likelihood areas.

 

The cavoodle was lost in grassland, but could be located easily with a thermal imaging camera.

 

"Shauli was located in an area of long grass and wouldn't have been seen if it wasn't for the thermal camera being able to pick up a heat signature through the vegetation."

It was a happy result for this little cavoodle and her owners, who were "over the moon" to be reunited with their beloved doggo.

Anne from Arthur & Co Pet Concierge said they were using thermal drones more often to find lost pets.

 

A thermal imaging camera located a lost cavoodle near Byron Bay.

 

"In 2020, we received over 1000 requests to find lost pets and thermal drones have become a new addition to our existing services pet finding services," she said.

In light of this, SkyStock and Arthur & Co Pet Concierge have developed a partnership.

They are now creating a national database of drone operators who can be used for future searches at short notice.

Interested operators can fill out an expression of interest at: http://bit.ly/thermaldrone.