Does intruder group size and orientation affect flight initiation distance in birds?
By C. Geist, J. Liao, S. Libby, Daniel T. Blumstein. Animal Biodiversity and Conservation, 2005
93 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Wildlife managers use flight initiation distance (FID), the distance animals flee an approaching predator, to determine set back distances to minimize human impacts on wildlife. FID is typically estimated by a single person; this study examined the effects of intruder number and orientation on FID. Three different group size treatments (solitary person, two people side-by-side, two people one-behind-the-other) were applied to Pied Currawongs (Strepera graculina) and to Crimson Rosellas (Platycerus elegans). Rosellas flushed at significantly greater distances when approached by two people compared to a single person. This effect was not seen in currawongs. Intruder orientation did not influence the FID of either species. Results suggest that intruder number should be better integrated into estimates of set back distance to manage human visitation around sensitive species.
Subfields: Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8aa20ade0bdca5235c85cbfd3dfe7fb80af33e19
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Citations in the corpus
- Testing the minimum approach distance guidelines for incubating Royal penguins Eudyptes schlegeli (2005, background): “Seabird responses to human activity have been found to increase with visitor group size (Geist et al., 2005; Holmes, unpublished data) and vary with stage in the breeding cycle (Wilson et al., 1991).”
- A review of flight-initiation distances and their application to managing disturbance to Australian birds (2012, unknown): “Larger groups of people may evoke longer FIDs (Geist et al. 2005).”
- Coyotes and recolonizing wolves: social rank mediates risk-conditional behaviour at ungulate carcasses (2008, background): “At the opposite end of this continuum is aggressive confrontation (Geist et al. 2005).”