A wildlife rescue group in Bavaria has sharply increased the number of young fawns it saves each spring after adding thermal imaging drones to its work. A new video case study from DJI shows how the organization Rehkitz-Rettung Mangfalltal uses the DJI Matrice 4 Series to find and protect fawns hidden in tall meadow grass before farmers begin the annual mowing season. The change has lifted the group’s yearly rescue totals many times over.
DJI, which calls itself the global leader in civilian drones and creative camera technology, released the study to show how conservation teams across Germany can put enterprise drone technology to use. The group flies two models, the Matrice 4T and the Matrice 4TD, both fitted with thermal cameras that detect the body heat of animals resting in dense grass. By pairing heat detection with zoom cameras and precise positioning, pilots can send ground crews straight to a hidden animal.
Why the DJI Matrice 4 Series Boosted Rescue Counts
Since building drone technology into its routine, Rehkitz-Rettung Mangfalltal has seen its annual rescue count rise from roughly 10 to 15 animals to between 300 and 350. The wider benefit reaches past wildlife protection, because farmers can mow with greater confidence that their fields have been cleared of hidden fawns. Tim Rau, who pilots for the group and serves as its chairman, described how the newer hardware expanded the area his team can cover in a single day.
“we can keep them in the air longer, cover more ground without intermediate landings, and survey fields faster and with even more precision thanks to RTK. Also, AI features help pilots reliably spot fawns. On an operation day, that easily adds another 50% more area coverage compared to the previous generation of drone technology,” Tim Rau, Pilot and Chairman of Rehkitz-Rettung Mangfalltal
RTK, short for Real-Time Kinematic positioning, lets the drones reach centimeter-level location accuracy, which helps pilots pinpoint a fawn’s exact spot in a field. The DJI Matrice 4 Series is also built as an open platform, so operators can train and run their own detection models made for the aircraft, including software designed to recognize fawns from the air. Both the Matrice 4T and Matrice 4TD support this kind of custom training across their visual and thermal cameras.
From Human Chains to a Thermal Rescue Workflow
Every spring, thousands of fawns, young hares, and ground-nesting birds are killed by mowing machinery across Germany. Young fawns tend to freeze when they sense a threat, an instinct that hides them from predators but leaves them exposed to farm equipment. For years, volunteers tackled the problem on foot, walking through meadows in long lines to search the grass by hand, which was slow and physically demanding.
With thermal imaging and intelligent drone technology, the group can now locate these hidden animals far more quickly before mowing begins. The same fields sit within a broader shift in which farmers lean on drones for many jobs, and DJI’s agriculture drones are used elsewhere for crop work across large properties. In the rescue setting, the Matrice 4TD’s weather-resistant build also keeps flights going in tougher conditions, so teams are not always grounded by poor weather.
The case study lays out the rescue process in clear steps, covering drone flights, careful handling, and safe release. First, the thermal drone climbs above the meadow at an altitude of 80 to 100 meters, flying either through pre-programmed automatic missions or under manual control. When the thermal camera picks up a heat source, the pilot can switch to a split-screen view on the controller and use the zoom camera to study the animal from above.
If the heat source is confirmed as a fawn, its position is pinned to centimeter-level accuracy using the drone’s satellite positioning and shared with the ground team right away. That team then moves in to lift the fawn to safety before the mower passes through. DJI says the Matrice 4T and Matrice 4TD are available through authorized DJI Enterprise dealers, giving other conservation groups a path to the same setup.
