I believe that relates to hunting activities and isn't the end all on properly licensed and permitted wildlife management properties and the surveys that are done completely outside of hunting animals. I mean, you wouldn't be allowed to hunt deer from a helicopter either, but doing counts from a helicopter at 15' above the trees as a part of an annual survey and not during hunting season, is perfectly acceptable.

Drones, I believe, could do this from higher altitudes and causing less stress on the wildlife if I'm right. I suspect it's already in practice.

Edit: here is one apparent example: https://loneoakair.com/services/wildlife/

Hey all, just stumbled upon this thread and, as the owner of the largest thermal drone wildlife survey provider in Texas, think I can answer some of these questions.

In terms of the legality of using drones, it is perfectly legal as long as the operator conducting the survey possesses an Aerial Wildlife Management permit through TPWD (this is the same permit helicopter companies are required to hold as well). Like @Catag94 mentioned, it's very much illegal to use drones for direct hunting activities (which unfortunately currently includes recovering wounded animals in Texas), but perfectly fine to use them for surveys.

One common misconception is that deer need to be in velvet in order to collect an accurate buck/doe ratio with a drone. While this may be true if you're only using the thermal, we typically fly in the early morning or with a spotlight, which allows us to utilize the drone's thermal and visible cameras. We employ the thermal to locate the heat signatures, and then switch to a side-by-side with the visible camera to differentiate between bucks, does, exotics, etc. Here's an example of what that looks like:


We've been in business since 2023 and have seen rapid growth in the numbers of Texas landowners opting for drone surveys. In fact, we expect to fly over 400,000 acres across the state this season alone. Compared to helicopter counts, drone surveys are more accurate and, like some people mentioned earlier in this thread, are significantly less stressful for the deer. While spotlight or trail camera surveys can certainly yield good results if done correctly, they are very time and effort intensive, especially on larger properties. If anyone in interested in learning more about drone surveys, please feel free to visit our website at www.skysenderos.com