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Reuters
Reuters
Environment
By Daisy Chung, Gloria Dickie and Simon Scarr

How daredevil drones find nearly extinct plants hiding in cliffs

FILE PHOTO: A sample of Wilkesia hobdyi collected with a drone and the Mamba (Multi-Use Aerial Manipulator Bidirectionally Actuated) tool in Hawaii, U.S., in this undated handout picture. Ben Nyberg/National Tropical Botanical Garden/Handout via REUTERS

Ben Nyberg stood on a knife-edge ridge along Hawaii’s Na Pali Coast, his eyes scouring the leafy recesses of the neighboring red-rock ridges. It was quiet, if not for a faint buzzing of a drone flying among flocks of curious white-tailed tropicbirds.

Nyberg steered the drone closer toward the opposing ridge, scanning the iPad in his hands, which acted as a viewfinder. Then, he saw it: Wilkesia hobdyi.

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