Luis Amaral (24 August). Can someone advise on a reasonable priced and reliable drone to follow animals after darting with good battery time. Henry Labuschagne, [26 Aug 2022 at 14:27:46]: I have been using a DJI Mavic Pro for a few years now and it served me well. Battery life is about 25 minutes. I have 6 batteries to make up for relative short flying time. If you look on Gumtree you sometimes get good bargains. You should speak to somebody at a drone shop to get more technical info and make your choice. There are all sorts of new drones in the marketplace now. Erik Verryne, [26 Aug 2022 at 14:44:24]: Hi Louis. I have the same model. Works well for me. However, they have limited value following some species pre or post darting in more densely vegetated areas. You have to fly very high at times to follow darted elephants, rhinos and even lions which limit your visibility quality. They hate the drone’s sound and go on the run if they are lightly sedated. Henry Labuschagne, [26 Aug 2022 at 16:24:15]: Agree. I have darted a lot of nyala, sable, roan and buffalo in dense bush. I locate the animal and send the drone up in the air above the animal and let it hover high enough to not to disturb the animal.When it takes off after being darted the main thing is to see the direction that it runs and then get trackers to follow it in the direction of the drone. Erik Verryne, [26 Aug 2022 at 16:41:40 ]: If you have the funds, I would suggest you go for the upgraded DJI Mavic 3 now. It has 46min flights, stream video 15km for those animals you missed and need to give 10 minutes, great lenses and you will be able to fit infrared and thermal lenses on it soon for that late afternoon/last shot before going dark bold ups. I am just waiting for my ship….. Johan Wessels, [26 Aug 2022 at 17:11:57]: Erik that's the DJI Mini Mavic pro 3 ( R17000) 249gram and allowed to fly close to airport flightpaths. Erik Verryne, [26 Aug 2022 at 17:19:52]: Hi Johan. Not the Mini. The Mavic 3 just came out. It goes from about R33 000 up to R75 000 depending on extras. You can buy the tooty at Cape Union Mart for a cool R100,000 if you are in a hurry Henry Labuschagne, [26 Aug 2022 at 17:29:07]: I paid R20k for mine. There are some on Gumtree now for 5K.
