Measuring disturbance at swift breeding colonies due to the visual aspects of a drone:a quasi-experi

• 作 者: Geison P.MESQUITA José D.RODR(I)GUEZ-TEIJEIRO Serge A.WICH Margarita MULERO-P(A)ZM(A)NY
• 机 构: Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Bioscience, Autonomous Universit
• 出 处: 动物学报（英文版）
• 发表日期: 2021年2期
• 关键词: Cypseloides senex disturbance drones multirotors Streptoprocne zonaris unmanned

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.