Globe and Mail - Sky is the limit for use of mini, unmanned planes

Helicopters collect evidence in some car-crash cases, but the RCMP collision-cop seized had a faster, cheaper, and more portable alternative in mind – namely “Micro-UAVs,” or the stripped-down commercial cousins of the “unmanned aerial vehicles” pioneered by the military.

“I don’t want to destroy things, I want to spy on things, count things and so on,” says David Bird of McGill University, a researcher who has been using UAVs to study birds of prey. The aptly named wildlife-biology professor says UAVs have given him big-picture perspectives on migration patterns and some sharp insights into what’s going on in bird nests.

“It’s brand new really exciting stuff,” he says.