News Finding: A new method combining drones, thermal imaging and machine learning can reliably detect koalas in their complex natural habitats. New open access paper here:  
Paper Finding: Automated and manual detection methods were found to be similarly efficient in terms of time required to complete detections per survey, although as noted much of the time required for the automated detection method is simply processing time and requires no input from the user.
News Context: A new method combining drones, thermal imaging and machine learning can reliably detect koalas in their complex natural habitats. New open access paper here:  
Paper Context: Nonetheless, even in its current form this methodology has already matched the optimal of performance of similar wildlife automated detection methods. Automated and manual detection methods were found to be similarly efficient in terms of time required to complete detections per survey, although as noted much of the time required for the automated detection method is simply processing time and requires no input from the user. Automated detection yields a higher probability of detection and a lower or comparable rate of false positive error in the same amount of time as the latter.