WELLINGTON, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- The drone market is booming, but New Zealand researchers say the regulatory focus has been on safety and privacy and misses the potential impacts on wildlife, according to a study released on Tuesday.
Disturbance from vehicles and other human activity are known to affect wildlife, but with the speed that drones have entered widespread use, their effects are only just starting to be studied, said an article on the study published in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.
New Zealand's University of Waikato researchers reviewed evidence for wildlife disturbance and current drone policies and concluded in the article that the law was "playing catch-up" with emerging technology.
Researchers recommend specific policy related to impacts of wildlife and suggest threatened species might need extra protections to ensure they are not harmed by drones getting too close for comfort, such as adopting minimum approach distances to threatened species.
