How Thermal Drone Deer Recovery Works

A thermal drone can search in minutes ground that would take a tracking party hours. Here’s what’s actually happening when a pilot puts one in the air, and what you can do to help them find your deer.

What a thermal camera sees

A thermal camera doesn’t see light. It sees heat. Everything gives off some infrared heat, and the camera shows warmer things as brighter (or a different color) than cooler things around them.

A deer’s body runs around 100°F or more. On a cool fall night, the ground, leaves, and brush around it are much colder, so a deer shows up as a bright shape that stands out clearly, even in thick cover where you’d walk right past it.

When it works best

Thermal works best when the deer is much warmer than everything around it:

• Cool nights and early mornings are ideal.
• Midday sun warms rocks, logs, and open ground, which makes the picture busier and the deer harder to pick out.
• Rain and strong wind can ground a drone or make a search harder.
• Pine thickets are harder. Pines keep their needles and give off a warm signature of their own, so a deer is harder to pick out. Bare hardwoods in late fall are much easier.
• Early season, full leaf. With the leaves still on, a drone can still find deer, but it’s harder than after leaf drop.
• Water. A deer in or under water cools down much faster, and under water it can be invisible to the drone unless the camera settings are tuned just right.

A downed deer on land holds its heat a long time and often still shows up on thermal more than 24 hours later, in warm weather and cold. A living deer stays easy to see.

How a search usually goes

Every pilot works a little differently, but most searches look like this:

1. The call. The pilot will ask what kind of hit you think it was, when you shot, where the deer was last seen, and whether you’ve already tracked it.
2. Map pins. You’ll usually drop pins on a map at the hit site and your last blood, and talk through which way the deer ran.
3. The flight. From there, the pilot plans a search and flies it above the trees, usually in a pattern so no ground is missed. Most of the time, a drone at that height doesn’t bother a deer the way people walking in do.
4. The find. When the pilot spots the deer, their equipment can mark its exact location, usually to within a few feet. The pilot sends you the coordinates or a pin you can save to onX or Google Maps and follow straight to your deer. Some pilots will also walk in with you to help with photos or the drag.

If the deer is alive, the pilot can watch it without pushing it, and you can decide together on the next step.

Limits and rules

• It can’t see through solid cover. Dense pines, a deep brush pile, or a deer under a cut bank can block the view.
• It isn’t always allowed. Rules for using drones to recover deer vary by state, and some states limit or don’t allow it. Check with your state wildlife agency.
• Recovering the deer needs permission. The pilot can fly anywhere FAA rules allow, but that doesn’t give you permission to go get the deer. If it’s on someone else’s land, you need to ask the landowner first.
• Pilots who charge for recovery need an FAA Part 107 certificate. Many list it on their profile, and it’s fair to ask.

How to give the pilot the best chance

• Call early, as soon as you think this one could be hard to find. The pilot will talk through the shot and decide when to fly.
• Don’t push the deer before the pilot arrives. A bedded deer close by is the easiest find there is.
• Drop map pins at the hit site, your last blood, and the last place you saw the deer.
• Keep the area quiet. Fewer people walking around means fewer warm footprints and less chance of moving the deer.