In new research being undertaken by Flinders University in partnership with conservation charity Koala Life and the State Government, non-invasive koala monitoring techniques are being developed using drones and facial recognition technology to count, identify and re-identify koalas. Minister for Environment and Water David Speirs said this cutting-edge technology will be used as part of a study on koalas at Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Mount Lofty Ranges to get a better understanding of both their numbers and their movements. "Traditionally, monitoring koala populations has involved capturing and individually marking koalas, a process that is both labour-intensive and poses potential welfare issues," Minister Speirs said. "It is very important for us to develop non-invasive techniques to help monitor animals in a safe way, and facial recognition through drone monitoring is utilising the latest technology to achieve this. "The ability to recognise individual members of a species in the wild will help to grow an understanding of individual movements as well as population estimates, and this understanding will allow the development of meaningful management strategies.

Last year's Castle Fire in California's Sierra Nevada is estimated to have killed more than 10 percent of the world's giant sequoias, the tallest trees on earth. Sequoias can live through many fires over life spans that last thousands of years; their bark is fire-resistant and they rely on fire to reproduce. But as climate change intensifies, wildfires are growing larger and more intense. According to state officials, six of the seven largest wildfires in California history took place roughly within the past year. To help restore fire-ravaged forests and temper the effects of climate change, a handful of young companies want to scatter seeds from drones.

Enter increasingly affordable and sophisticated drones and miniaturized geophysical sensors. The Binghamton team's first focus: the Russian-made PFM-1 mine, a device just five inches across, made largely of plastic, and shaped like a butterfly. Designed to be dropped from the air in large numbers, they flutter gently to the ground like flocks of birds, and await the unwary. Designed mainly to maim, not kill, they are difficult to spot with a magnetometer, because they contain little metal. And because they resemble plastic toys, many children handle them, and get blown up.

DJI's upcoming Mavic 3 Pro drone may be a big upgrade over the last model, according to leaks from DroneDJ and Jasper Ellens seen by The Verge. It may have a significantly longer flight time along with not just one, but two cameras, including a telephoto model and one with a larger Four Thirds sensor. If accurate, the Mavic 3 would be highly desirable for cinematographers and aerial photographers when it arrives, reportedly later this year. Where the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom make you choose between a larger sensor or a 24-48mm equivalent zoom, the new model will offer both on one drone. It reportedly comes with two separate cameras, including a 20-megapixel, 24mm f/2.8-f/11 primary camera with a Four Thirds sensor, along with a 12-megapixel, 1/2-inch sensor secondary camera with a 160mm-equivalent telephoto lens.

Esri India, the country's Geographic Information System (GIS) software and solutions provider, has introduced Site Scan for ArcGIS, a complete cloud-based drone mapping solution. The solution encompasses flight planning, data capture, data processing, analysis, data sharing and drone fleet management. It is offered as'Software as a Service' (SaaS) with unlimited storage and computing. Site Scan for ArcGIS is hosted in India, on a cloud approved by the Government of India and ensures that the drone data is stored and processed within India in compliance with the government regulations. Site Scan for ArcGIS exhibits the capability to process data captured by most of the drones manufactured in India or abroad.

Former military intelligence analyst Brett Velicovich said on Thursday that the report of federal agencies buying Chinese drones "poses a national security risk." Federal law enforcement agencies in the Biden administration are reportedly purchasing surveillance drones from China that have previously been labeled a potential national security threat by the Pentagon. The U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have recently acquired surveillance drones from the Shenzhen-based company DJI, around the same time the Defense Department deemed products from the Chinese company to be a potential national security threat, according to an Axios report. "The American people especially need to look at what this administration does, and not what they say, because they are clearly full of it if they don't stop this illegal activity immediately," Velicovich told "Fox & Friends." Velicovich argued that the purchase of Chinese-made drones is not only hypocritical to the Biden administration's stance on reducing America's reliance on technology, but it was also made illegal by the Department of Justice in 2019 when specific legislation was passed banning the purchase of drones and components made in China.

Lara Logan joined Lt. Gen. William Boykin on'Fox News Primetime' to discuss the U.S. drone strike that killed 10 civilians, including seven children. Logan said the U.S. betrayal of Afghan allies caused a scarcity in intelligence. The news cycle may have shifted away from Afghanistan, but not because the country is in a better place. To the contrary, the Afghanistan crisis is only getting worse. If anything, the shift in press coverage only exposes the pitfalls of media bias, with the liberal media doing everything in its power to change the subject and deflect blame from President Biden.

Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy has the latest on the president's speech at the U.S. on'Special Report' Federal law enforcement agencies in the Biden administration are reportedly purchasing surveillance drones from China that have previously been labeled a potential national security threat by the Pentagon. The U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have recently acquired surveillance drones from the Shenzhen-based company DJI, around the same time the Defense Department deemed products from the Chinese company to be a potential national security threat, according to an Axios report. DOBRIANSKY AND RUNDE: CHINA'S POWER INSIDE THE UN IS GROWING RAPIDLY AND US MUST UP ITS GAME Procurement records show that the Secret Service bought eight DJI drones on July 26 just three days after the Defense Department issued a statement warning about possible threats posed by the company's products. Around the same time, records show that the FBI bought 19 drones from DJI. DJI is one of the most popular drone manufacturers in the industry, and the company requires those who purchase their products to download proprietary software and provide to users their own mapping databases that have the potential to be monitored remotely. Concerns about the company's products being used to advance China's interests have been longstanding and include a 2017 statement from the Department of Homeland Security that claimed with "moderate confidence" that DJI was "providing U.S. critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government."

The Air Force on Tuesday said Lt. Gen. Sami Said will lead a review of the investigation into the Kabul Aug. 29 drone strike that was intended for ISIS-K militants but actually killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children. "The secretary of the Air Force has directed Lt. Gen. Sam Said, the Department of the Air Force inspector general, to investigate the facts and circumstances relating to the civilian casualty event on Aug. 29, 2021, in Kabul, Afghanistan," the Air Force said in a statement. The announcement comes one day after Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a senior-level review of the investigation that detailed the day's events. The investigation conducted by the U.S. Central Command found that the military mistakenly identified a white Toyota Corolla, believed to be carrying at least one Islamic State fighter, and instead was carrying a longtime Afghan employee at a U.S. humanitarian organization. The vehicle in question had been tracked for eight hours after initially being spotted in an Islamic State compound in Kabul.

'Fox & Friends Weekend' co-host Pete Hegseth reacts to the U.S. drone that killed civilians instead of ISIS-K members in Afghanistan. After previously avoiding the botched U.S. drone strike that killed Afghan civilians instead of terrorists, both CNN and NBC's Sunday morning news shows dedicated just seconds of coverage to the Biden foreign policy blunder. On Friday, the Pentagon confirmed that the Aug. 28 drone strike was a "tragic mistake" that resulted in ten dead civilians, including seven children, which was meant to be in response to the Aug. 26 terrorist attack outside the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. servicemen. This came one week after the New York Times published a stunning visual investigation that came to the same conclusion. The Biden administration had announced that "two high profile" ISIS-K fighters who were dubbed as "planners and facilitators" of the suicide bombing were killed in the strike.