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Home-made UAV with thermal cam used to hunt feral pigs

By sciencepunk on October 18, 2011.

A Louisiana farmer was fed up with feral pigs trashing his rice crop. Usually farmers hire hunters to deal with the problem. But this isn't easy:

Hunting big angry pigs in rice that is as tall as your belly button is HARD. Seeing them at anything other than 10 feet away is nearly impossible, you have to walk, listen, stalk, and kill. Then chase the survivors for hours. Sometimes you could waste all night looking in the wrong places or maybe the pigs decided to not come out at all.

This year I decided to work smarter instead of harder. With our own little UAV up there I could spend a lot less time chasing pigs that might not even be around.

Thus the Dehogaflier is born.

The Dehogaflier is a custom-built RC airplane outfitted with a $4,500 thermal camera. With this device, the pilot can spot a pig at 1,000ft looking straight down. Also, it's worth bearing in mind the pilot has to fly this for long periods in pitch darkness. What a king!

i-da551a5423b661dda2d474d018260f9a-DSCF5009sml.jpg

Also, apparently in Louisiana you hunt pigs with assault rifles? Americans are so crazy!

Via Metafilter.

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Just to set the record straight: A semi-automatic rifle is NOT an assault rifle. Just because it's black and has a removable magazine doesn't make it any more or less dangerous than a "hunting" rifle.

I'd like to know what the model of R/C plane is used. I would like to get a live view wireless video day time camera set up on one. Any help is welcomed!

By Matthew Church (not verified) on 30 Jul 2012 #permalink