Droning for Rhinos

These drones would need to be equipped with infra red cameras with zoom capability as well as the normal navigational and surveillance cameras. So either the platform needs to be more lift capable or you need more expensive duel purpose cameras. There would also be extensive training costs as well as loss from accidents in training and the field. You haven't fully figured these into your program. You may also want to simply consider making the drones disposable and explosive (as this is cheaper) and then when the poachers are spotted you can just dive into their camp and go boom. Problem solved. Then you can grind up their teeth and bones and sell it to the Chinese for virility "elixirs". Makes a good statement to the rest of the poachers.
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You are to be commended on your efforts to work up an outline strategy and also put together a video on it.

I too believe poaching could be greatly reduced if the poacher element believed there was a observation platform overhead, more or less continuously loitering at a height high enough to be unsure whether or not it was there, but believed there to be a very high percentage the animal indeed is being tracked AND watched.

Your suggestion the fixed wing UAV would have a 90min flight duration would need to be greatly increased. The transit time to loiter pattern, and back to base, would eat most, if not all, of that duration. I would imagine a time on station would need to be a couple of hours at a minimum to be feasible and affordable. And I believe with solar cells, algorithms maximizing the use of thermals, ridge lifts and or convergence zones, could extend the time on station for most of the daylight hours, making the night hours the most rigorous for the ground crew.
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Maybe you need to get in touch with the guys from Hoedspruit airforce, they currently have 30 Bantams in the air, and 3 drones.. Drones are running on 3W 125CC motors with a hangtime of 3hours and range is sort of limitless within the park, and surrounding farms., its useing the signal from towers in the park. and only runs at night.
sadly they are only started once a rhino's shot, in an attempt to find the poachers.

I know the same company is also doing surveying for AngloAmerican / Platinum. With hexacopters, inspecting the cruchers, so there is no plant shutdown. Mine saftey is funny, cause they made a landing area, with railings and yellow and black paint and everything..

The courst currently doesnt accept photos takein from an unmanded camera either stuck to a tree or taken from a drone, so currently its not usefull evidence

I would like to know what you what to achieve with the drones? This will not stop a poatcher, from killing a rhino, If a manned bantam with a rifle cant stop then why would a harmsless flying camera stop him? and if you caught the killer, he is not the brains behind the operation?

Best of luck to you guys, I hope you can get this to where it makes a differenace so I can some day show my son a live rhino.

also make sure your passion is the rhino's and not the toys..
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I think the point is to see where the poachers are so the rangers/security can easily track down the poachers. Not take photos and send them to the courts. But everybody is right that 90 minutes isn't enough time. You need a much better platform for the planes. In the time it would take to set up the plane, you could have searched most of the area the plane can, and do a better job in person since you can't see through trees.

Basing a drone off of the Tupolev ANT-25 might work. It's basically all wing with a massive amount of fuel stored in the wings. Could do the same for a drone. (But batteries in the wings. Or solar cells on the wings.)
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Check with Conservation Drones, they are doing some similar work; conservationdrones.org
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