I spent this past week (Sept 2023) traveling through Uganda and was totally blown away by the scenery and wildlife. Uganda is a bit lesser-known compared to other more popular destinations in East Africa but it definitely did not disappoint. I had the opportunity to capture FPV drone footage in a number of Uganda's national parks. Locations include Murchison Falls National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park(Kazinga channel), Lake Mburo National Park, and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. It's been a dream of mine for a while to capture African wildlife from this new perspective and I hope you enjoy the shots!
Everything was shot on a 5in FPV drone with a GoPro Hero11 Mini
All filming was done with the proper permits and approval from Uganda Wildlife Authority, UPDF and other necessary entities. Thanks to my guides Ole with Maasai African Guides and Ronnie with Wild Untouched Adventures for putting in so much work to get these permits approved. Believe me, it’s not an easy process. We had to start applying over 3 months in advance and still ran into problems. Please do not attempt to fly a drone in Uganda without all of the proper permits. You can end up in jail very easily.
Ethical questions of flying drones in close proximity to wildlife. This is likely to come up in comments so I want to address it.
Drones have been used for years to capture wildlife in natural history films but fpv drones are a newer technology to this area of filmmaking. Where traditional drones can capture nice shots from a distance FPV drones are meant to be right in the action flying close to a subject. This does pose some issues.
Animals are extremely sensitive to their surroundings so it's pretty well impossible to fly a drone without an animal knowing. Some animals are easily spooked by drones while others don’t seem to mind. Overall I think the important thing is to limit the stress on individual animals. That might mean only following an animal for a brief few seconds before leaving it alone or staying further back and cropping in on the shot in post (which I did in many cases). It can be easy to get carried away and chase the animal for longer but it’s up to the drone pilot and professional guides/wildlife experts to be respectful and determine boundaries.
This was a learning experience for me as every animal, even different individuals, from the same species, can react differently to the drone. I'll give a general overview of my experiences.
Zebra, buffalo, gazelle, and other prey animals- These animals are easily spooked and will start running from pretty much any potential danger. This does mean that they run regularly in their daily lives. Spooking them with a drone is pretty well guaranteed but having them run a little bit is not the end of the world.
Giraffes- This was interesting as you'll see the first giraffes in the video didn't seem to mind the drone while others were a bit spooked. This is because researchers use drones to monitor this particular group of giraffes so they were used to it. Other giraffes however do get spooked so it's important not to chase them for long.
Elephants have a deep hatred for bees so a big screeming robot bee isn't exactly music to their ears. I kept my flights with elephants pretty short to not annoy them too much.
Lions can go either way. Sometimes they'll try and attack the drone sometimes they'll run away, and occasionally they won't care at all.
Perspective- Wildlife in Africa face real pressing issues and if you travel there you'll hear stories of these problems firsthand. Whether that be poaching, human-animal conflicts, hunting, etc. these animals face constant real-life challenges to their survival. A drone flying around them for a few minutes is simply not one of these challenges. The permits required to fly around these animals are very hard to get so not just any tourist will be able to go and do this. With all this said I hope you enjoy the footage and maybe appreciate some of the thought behind capturing these animals from a new perspective.
