July 4th is notorious for being the holiday where pets go missing, and this is especially true in areas where there are a lot of fireworks. If you closely monitor lost pet pages in your area, you will undoubtedly see a ton of posts about missing cats and dogs on/around July 4th. In the following days, countless lost pet search efforts are underway.
On the evening of July 5th, we made contact with a pet owner in the local area who had a chihuahua named Mack go missing the previous day. The last time the family saw Mack was on their Ring doorbell camera heading north through the neighborhood.
The owners had canvassed the entire neighborhood to no avail. By the time we made contact with them, they were desperate. When we told them about our capability to facilitate lost pet search by searching the area with a thermal drone, they were on board with giving it a shot.
Day 1
We gathered some basic information on the dog to include a baseline on where to begin our search. The family had a hunch that Mack was in a large somewhat wooded area just to the west of the neighborhood. They had searched this area a little bit, but due to the thick vegetation, a comprehensive search on foot would have been difficult.
So, this is where we decided to start the search. Since the search area was located in Class D airspace, we obtained a LAANC clearance to fly. We got the drone ready to go, and we started the search.
At this point, it was close to midnight, so we knew we wouldn’t be able to use the standard cameras on our DJI M3T to supplement the thermal camera, but that was fine; the primary goal at the time was to search the primary area of interest and confirm/deny the presence of Mack, then go from there.
We started the search by performing a standard grid-style search pattern. Thankfully, the area of interest was simply a large rectangular area, so that made it easy.
Along the way, we saw a variety of small critters, many of which were too small to positively identify. We suspected they were rabbits, but it was difficult to tell, especially considering the small size of the dog.
We had to keep the drone at a fairly high altitude due to several transmission lines running along the edge of the search area; since we were flying at night, our obstacle avoidance sensors would be degraded, and flying the drone in close proximity to the transmission lines likely would have caused signal interference between the drone and the controller.
However, when we came across any small animals, we dropped GPS pins to mark each site. We were in constant contact with Mack’s family throughout the search, so we were relaying this grid information.
This particular feature of this drone is very beneficial when it comes to lost pet search, as it better facilitates the ground search by providing precise location information.
Throughout the search, we primarily used the “Tint” color palette. With this color palette, warmer temperatures show up in bright red against a white/gray/black background. This has become the go-to color palette of choice for search and rescue operations.
A residence on several acres was located at the northern end of the search area. We noticed four to five animals walking around what appeared to be the front yard of the property. Based on the apparent size of the animals, we were doubtful that any of them were Mack, but nevertheless, we relayed this information to the family.
We told them that this was undoubtedly private property, but they were grateful for the information we found with the thermal drone, and they considered going to the property owner to ask for permission to search the area on foot.
(You can also see the transmission lines we were dealing with that we mentioned earlier.)
After about 40 minutes of searching and no clear sign of Mack, we decided to relocate to search a smaller wooded area slightly farther north. We searched this area for approximately 30-40 minutes. We saw several other small critters, but we were unable to positively identify Mack.
We dropped GPS points at the areas where we saw the animals and relayed this information to the family. We considered going into this wooded area to search on foot, but given the darkness and the thickness of the vegetation, we opted not to.
As we neared the end of the life of our second battery, we decided to call it a night. We figured that it was likely that Mack was in the general vicinity and that if he was, he would likely be safely hunkered down for the night.
Day 2
We woke up early the next morning to a text from the family saying that a neighbor spotted Mack that morning just under half a mile east of the original search location.
This new area of interest was a fairly large field, and even though it wasn’t nearly as thickly vegetated as the original search location, it had some tall grass and shrubbery that would make a thorough foot search somewhat difficult given Mack’s small size.
We found a good spot to park and get the equipment set up, and again, we searched this area with a standard grid pattern.
With it being bright outside, we were able to leverage the M3T’s side-by-side camera view that enabled us to see the thermal view on one side of the screen with the zoom camera view on the other. When we observed noticeable heat signatures, this feature allowed us to quickly zoom in on the area of interest and ascertain whether or not it was Mack.
Approximately 20 minutes into the search, right as we were coming to the conclusion that Mack wasn’t in this area, we received a text from the family letting us know that Mack had been found! They were canvassing the surrounding area by car, and Mack was spotted just outside of the area we were searching by air.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, Mack was recovered safe and sound, and that’s the important part. Even though the drone didn’t identify Mack, it still played an important part in the lost pet search and rescue process.
Using this technology, we were able to gather actionable, insightful information on the probability that Mack was in the original search area. And on the second day, we were able to determine that Mack wasn’t in the area at which he was recently spotted. What took us 20 minutes to verify would have easily taken over an hour on foot.
When it comes to lost pet search via drone, not finding the animal is still beneficial, as it provides search personnel with information that can more efficiently streamline search efforts.
In other words, if we can confirm where the animal isn’t, ground search personnel can direct their efforts to new areas of interest instead of wasting time, energy, and resources unsuccessfully canvassing an area by foot that can be quickly and effectively searched by air.
Click here to read more information on our lost pet search service.
