No hunting assistance
No drone scouting, spotting, tracking, pursuit, or real-time location sharing when it could aid the taking of wildlife.
Wildlife compliance by state
Know the rules before the rotors turn.
Wildlife-drone laws differ by state, mission purpose, property type, hunting season, and species. RangeLine Aerial reviews the applicable rules before accepting or performing wildlife-related work.
Important
This page is a planning summary—not legal permission to fly.
Rules can change and public, federal, tribal, refuge, park, and wildlife-management lands may have additional restrictions. Every project requires a current review of its exact location, purpose, season, species, and intended use of the results. Information below was reviewed September 5, 2026.
General restrictions
Standards applied to every wildlife project.
Property permission and FAA compliance are necessary, but they do not override wildlife laws or land-manager rules.
No harassment
Flights must not chase, flush, drive, rally, concentrate, molest, or materially change wildlife behavior.
Permission is documented
Landowner access, launch and landing authority, public-land rules, and any required special-use approval are confirmed.
Protected wildlife is screened
Nesting birds, raptors, threatened or endangered species, refuges, closures, and sensitive seasons receive additional review.
Data use matters
The client’s purpose, intended recipients, active hunting activity, and release of maps or coordinates are documented before flight.
Uncertainty means hold
If a rule or requested use is unclear, the project remains on hold until the responsible wildlife or land agency provides direction.
Eight-state service area
General restrictions by state.
These summaries identify major operational concerns. The linked official sources control and should be checked again for each project.
NE
Review requiredNebraska
- Aircraft, including drones, may not be used to harass game animals or game birds.
- Do not use a drone to spot game and communicate its location to a person on the ground or otherwise aid hunting.
- Drones are not permitted in Nebraska state parks, historical parks, recreation areas, or wildlife management areas without an approved special-occasion permit.
- Scientific, educational, or private wildlife-management work may require additional Nebraska Game and Parks authorization.
CO
Review requiredColorado
- Colorado Parks and Wildlife states that drones may not be used to look for, scout, or detect wildlife as an aid in hunting.
- Survey information must remain separate from current or planned hunting activity and must not be relayed to hunters.
- State wildlife areas can have access requirements, seasonal closures, and property-specific restrictions.
- Research involving protected wildlife, nests, capture, handling, collection, or purposeful disturbance may require agency authorization.
SD
Strict limitsSouth Dakota
- A drone may not be used to aid in taking or recovering game under the general rule.
- Aircraft may not be used to hunt, take, concentrate, drive, rally, stir up, locate, or spot wild birds or animals.
- A narrow predator-or-varmint provision may apply on private land only when every statutory condition is met, including permission, timing, and FAA compliance.
- Commercial filming on Game, Fish and Parks property requires a permit that includes UAS operations.
WY
Season-sensitiveWyoming
- Do not use aircraft to spot, locate, communicate, or otherwise aid a person in taking Wyoming wildlife.
- Wyoming Game and Fish regulations include seasonal aircraft-scouting restrictions for big game and additional limits during trophy-game seasons.
- Independent survey work should document its non-hunting purpose, recipients, timing, and controls on live or final wildlife-location data.
- Wildlife Habitat Management Areas may have seasonal closures and property-specific access restrictions.
MT
24-hour ruleMontana
- Montana’s unlawful-aircraft-use statute expressly includes UAVs and drones.
- Aircraft may not be used to take wildlife or to concentrate, pursue, drive, rally, stir up, or intentionally disturb wildlife in a way that interferes with hunting.
- A person may not use aircraft to spot or locate a game animal for hunting within 24 hours after using the aircraft.
- Wildlife management areas, tribal lands, and federal lands can have closures or additional launch, landing, and commercial-use requirements.
IA
No hunting useIowa
- Iowa’s hunting regulations state that drones are aircraft and their use while hunting is not allowed.
- A person may not intentionally kill, wound, attempt to kill or wound, or pursue an animal, bird, or fish from or with a drone in flight.
- Do not use live communication to reveal the location or direction of game or coordinate hunters.
- State parks, preserves, refuges, game-management areas, and public-access properties may have separate activity or takeoff-and-landing restrictions.
KS
Public-land prohibitionKansas
- Drones may not be used for hunting or scouting wildlife.
- Drones may not be used to locate wounded or harvested game.
- Drone use is not permitted at Kansas state parks, wildlife areas, or other property owned or managed by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.
- Filming a hunt is limited to non-KDWP land and the drone cannot be part of taking or locating game.
Official sourceKDWP drone regulations and statutes
MO
Agent approval for recoveryMissouri
- Motor-driven conveyances, including drones, may not be used to pursue, take, drive, or molest wildlife.
- Launching, landing, or operating a drone on a Missouri Department of Conservation area requires a special-use permit.
- A drone may be used to recover wounded black bear, deer, elk, or turkey only with prior authorization from a conservation agent.
- Flights must avoid wildlife harassment, stress, and any additional conditions imposed for a conservation area.
RangeLine compliance review
What we confirm before a wildlife flight.
We document the mission instead of assuming that a general survey is automatically allowed.
- 1Purpose and recipients
Why the flight is requested, whether hunting is involved, and who will receive location data.
- 2Property and jurisdiction
Landowner authority, public-land management, local rules, closures, and launch or landing permission.
- 3Species and timing
Protected-species concerns, hunting seasons, nesting or roosting, animal behavior, and disturbance controls.
- 4Written authorization
Agency, scientific, filming, recovery, or special-use approval when the mission or property requires it.
Planning a wildlife or land survey?
Send the state, property, species, acreage, purpose, and preferred dates so we can begin the compliance review.