Measuring disturbance at swift breeding colonies due to the visual aspects of a drone : a quasi-experiment study
Mesquita, Geison P. (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia)
Rodríguez-Teijeiro, José Domingo (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals)
Wich, Serge A. (University of Amsterdam)
Mulero-Pázmány, Margarita (Liverpool John Moores University)

Fecha:	2021
Resumen:	There is a growing body of research indicating that drones can disturb animals. However, it is usually unclear whether the disturbance is due to visual or auditory cues. Here, we examined the effect of drone flights on the behavior of great dusky swifts Cypseloides senex and white-collared swifts Streptoprocne zonaris in 2 breeding sites where drone noise was obscured by environmental noise from waterfalls and any disturbance must be largely visual. We performed 12 experimental flights with a multirotor drone at different vertical, horizontal, and diagonal distances from the colonies. From all flights, 17% caused <1% of birds to temporarily abandon the breeding site, 50% caused half to abandon, and 33% caused more than half to abandon. We found that the diagonal distance explained 98. 9% of the variability of the disturbance percentage and while at distances >50 m the disturbance percentage does not exceed 20%, at <40 m the disturbance percentage increase to > 60%. We recommend that flights with a multirotor drone during the breeding period should be conducted at a distance of >50 m and that recreational flights should be discouraged or conducted at larger distances (e. g. 100 m) in nesting birds areas such as waterfalls, canyons, and caves.
Derechos:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Materia:	Cypseloides senex ; Disturbance ; Drones ; Multirotors ; Streptoprocne zonaris ; Unmanned aircraft systems
Publicado en:	Current Zoology, Vol. 67, Issue 2 (Abril 2021) , p. 157-163, ISSN 2396-9814

DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoaa038
PMID: 33854533

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