THE RESULTS ARE IN!! Two months ago I inquired about information on the Cape Dune Mole Rat on Wildlabs (https://wildlabs.net/discussion/mole-rat-mystery-can-anyone-help). Thanks to Jocelyn Stalker 

,who passed on some useful information, I was able to apply some of the insights gained from the papers and set about planning how drones could be used to monitor mole rat activity. I was hoping that I could even find out where their territories are and how many individuals are in a certain area using passive observations.

The Cape Dune Mole Rat is a solitary and fiercely territorial species of subterranean mammal occurring along the South Western cost of South Africa. They have a core chamber from which they burrow away from in search of food etc. Their territories cover up to 1400 square metres.

By using drones to map an area and GIS to visualise the activity of the mole rats (the appearance of new mole hills) over a 1 week period in 2024 and 2025, I was able to use spatial analysis processing tools to understand where the activity was concentrated. 

The results from testing my hypothesis where interesting and show promise as the data is consistent to that of the articles found through internet research and the literature provided by Jocelyn.

Image 2 Above: Data collected over 1 week in 2024 shows areas of activity over this period. It appears that there may be 6 territories in the 9552 square meter area.

Image 3 Above:  Data collected over 1 week in 2025 shows areas of activity over this period in green over the 2024 data in yellow. Activity shows some consistency as well as new activity within the study area. 

More data will be needed to confirm what is happening here but there is a lot of promise shown here. As we know the habits of these fascinating creature, we can see how passive remote sensing can be used to provide insights to the under world. 

Watch the GeoWing Academy vlog to find out more about this project here: 

To find out more about how to use drones and GIS for conservation practices, go to www.geowingacademy.com