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Growing up amid the rolling foothills, farmlands, and forests of Surry County, North Carolina, Andrew Zachman spent his childhood outdoors, often caring for his family’s goats. When he wasn’t tending the animals, he baled hay, harvested corn, and gathered firewood to heat his childhood home — chores that strengthened his bond with the land and fostered a lifelong respect for nature.

“Being outside was simply part of life,” he recalls. “It was where I worked and played.”

Over time, those early experiences took on new meaning, shaping a deeper respect for nature that would guide his choices as an adult.

“I still partially heat my house with wood, not because I have to, but because maintaining my connection to the outdoors is important to me,” Zachman says.

This way of life now informs his work as a research assistant at the Carolina Drone Lab, where he applies aerial and remote-sensing technologies to address environmental challenges.

State fish and wildlife agencies want to improve how they track animals, but they often lack the time or resources to adopt new technology. Drones can offer a fast, low-impact, and affordable way to monitor wildlife, but many agencies are reluctant to adopt them because of unclear protocols and limited guidance.

For his latest project, Zachman is collaborating with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), which manages the state’s game and non-game species. Together, they are exploring how drones equipped with thermal cameras can monitor habitat and detect Northern Bobwhite Quail, a gamebird whose population has declined dramatically, largely because of habitat loss.

The year-long project is funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Multistate Conservation Grant Program, which draws $11 million annually from excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment. This revenue, generated by hunters and anglers, supports wildlife restoration, habitat assessments, outreach, and research nationwide.

Ultimately, Zachman’s goal is to create practical guidelines and recommendations for land managers to adopt drone-based monitoring — not only for Northern Bobwhite, but as a scalable model for other species and habitats.

“With this project, we want to ensure that any state with quail, especially its wildlife agencies, can apply what we learn,” he says.

Method marriage

Monitoring quail is challenging because the birds spend much of their time concealed in vegetation. To track populations, biologists primarily rely on acoustic surveys using autonomous recording units, devices equipped with microphones that are strategically placed throughout the landscape. These units estimate quail populations by capturing their vocalizations, but their recordings require time-intensive review and analysis.

In addition to acoustic surveys, researchers use manned point counts. This method involves establishing listening points across the area of interest, with an observer visiting each location, listening for a set amount of time, and recording the number of calling birds.

These surveys are typically conducted twice a year: once in the summer to estimate the number of males calling to attract females, and again in the fall, when quail form groups known as coveys, which can range from just a few individuals to more than 20. Researchers listen for a distinct call that signals the presence of a group, recording each covey they detect but not the actual number of birds, which is difficult to determine.

This fall, Zachman will take a different approach, using drones equipped with thermal cameras to fly over coveys and attempt to get precise counts of individual quail. He’ll test this strategy alongside NCWRC biologists on state game lands.

“We want to better inform conservation teams interested in learning how that population changes over time,” Zachman says. “And the best way to do that is to track the coveys, count the number of individuals in each one, and continue to monitor them.”

His project blends old and new: a biologist listens for bird calls at a point count site, pinpoints the general area, and estimates the distance to the source. This estimate will then guide Zachman as he launches the drone.

Once airborne, he will scan the controller display for subtle heat signatures using the drone’s thermal camera. When a possible covey appears, Zachman switches to a high-zoom camera to visually confirm its presence and count the individual birds amid the grass and shadows.

“Hopefully it all comes together,” Zachman says. “We’re kind of marrying traditional methodology with actually flying the drone out there.”

Habitat mapping

Finding quail is only one part of the project. Understanding the quality and distribution of their habitat is equally important.

Zachman spent this past summer mapping habitats in southeastern North Carolina on NCWRC game lands, which provide designated areas for all recreation, from hiking and biking to hunting and fishing. He primarily worked at sites within Suggs Mill Pond Game Land, along with additional locations on private farms throughout the Bladen Lakes region.

“We have a mix of nonagricultural forest-grassland habitats and agricultural settings where a lot of quail are living,” he says. “This mixture makes up a large portion of the Southeast landscape, so learning to manage these habitats effectively is important for the long-term sustainability of quail populations.”

At each site, Zachman designs a mapping mission and launches a drone on a preprogrammed flight path, systematically flying back and forth to capture images at regular intervals. Each flight can produce over a thousand photographs, which are stitched together with specialized software to create a high-resolution, distortion-free map of the landscape. This allows for precise location plotting and provides a strong foundation for further analysis.

Next comes “ground-truthing,” a process used to verify what the drone data shows on the ground. By walking through the field sites, Zachman establishes vegetation plots and categorizes species into broad groups, such as grasses and woody plants. He then measures species height and percent cover within one-square-meter plots, focusing on habitat features relevant to quail.

“The literature provides a good understanding of the types of habitats quail prefer,” Zachman says. “By using drones to more accurately document the distribution and quantity of various habitat types across the landscape, biologists at NCWRC and other agencies will be better equipped to manage the properties vital to North Carolina residents.”

For Zachman, this research is another way of staying connected to the landscapes that first sparked his love of the outdoors, helping ensure they continue to support wildlife for generations to come.