Conservation engineering: counting hippos by drones

As early as 1978, Willy Delvingt defended a thesis in Gembloux on the aerial counting of hippos. 40 years later, Julie Linchant and Simon Lhoest, today's doctoral students, published an article on the counting of hippos by drone with Professor Emeritus Willy Delvingt as co-author.

Agreat story that proves that conservation engineering remains a very lively and innovative field within our faculty. After the elephants and lions, it is the turn of this emblematic and fascinating animal, beacon of ecotourism, to pay attention to the research of these FORIL researchers and their promoters, Pr Philippe Lejeune and Pr Cédric Vermeulen.

It is hoped that improved counts will allow politicians to make relevant decisions, based on reliable estimates, when deciding whether or not to classify a species as threatened.

Want to know more?

Read the recently published scientific article

The IUCN status of the hippopotamus on the Red List of Threatened Species