Gliders seem unfazed by drones buzzing over Vic forests

While a court injunction has muted the sounds of heavy machinery in some Victorian forests, a soft buzzing above the trees could foreshadow their return.

State-owned forestry company VicForests is trialling drones to monitor logging zones for fauna after the Supreme Court last year found it had failed to adequately survey and protect two endangered glider species.

Logging of state forests in East Gippsland and the Central Highlands has been halted since in November while VicForests develops new monitoring techniques and the court considers its appeal.

VicForests environmental performance director Bill Paul said the unmanned surveys had been encouraging, both in efficiency and by removing the danger to surveyors slogging through dense bushland at night.

"Some of our forest is impenetrable and some of it is very difficult to walk through," Mr Paul told AAP.

"We seem to be coming up with a reasonable process to make that work to find the gliders ... as the court requires."

The drones use thermal imaging cameras to detect heat spots, before switching to a regular video camera and floodlight to illuminate the canopy and identify the animal.

Melbourne University research fellow Ben Wagner, a consultant on the trial, said he was surprised by the apparent disinterest of animals in the drones, which had alleviated concerns the vehicles would be disruptive.

"The video footage is quite interesting because you see greater gliders foraging on leaves or making their way up into the canopy, maybe getting ready for a glide," he said.

"Which is really encouraging as well because it also means that you can observe these animals in their natural habitat ... and you don't influence your observations by (appearing) a potential threat to them." 

Dr Wagner said while the initial results were encouraging, further data would be required to determine the method's efficacy relative to ground surveys.

Because the gliders tend to move freely around their home range, Mr Paul said surveys that did not locate any gliders would be repeated three times to confirm the area was safe to harvest, but ultimately any return to logging was some time away.

"In the next week or two, we might be close to getting the final advice from our expert ... and from there, we need to sign up drone companies and develop contracts with them," he said.

"Then we've got to do the surveys, so harvesting's still a little way off."