Monitoring human disturbance: Factors affecting escape behaviour of waterbirds in North African wetlands
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2021-11-25
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Abstract
nderstanding the factors affecting escape behaviour in waterbirds can be useful in
the management of human disturbances. A common measure of escape response is
flight initiation distance (FID), the distance at which an approaching intruder disturbs
an individual bird enough to make it move away. Here, we analyse the escape behaviour
of
a
set
of
waterbirds
for
the
first
time
within
a
North
African
context.
We
tested
(one-
way
ANOVA and general linear model) how FID varied with the area where
waterbirds were temporal scale, distance at which the observer start approaching
to the sampled birds, body size, flock size, species composition of the flock and foraging
activity of the sampled birds. We collected 866 individual FIDs for 19 waterbird
species
wintering
at
two
north
Algerian
wetlands
(the
Mekhada
marsh,
RAMSAR
site,
El- taref District and the Sebkhet El- Mahmel, unprotected wetland, Khenchela
District). The obtained FIDs ranged from 32.6 m in smaller species as the Kentish
plover Charadrius alexandrines to 167 m in larger ones as the ruddy shelduck Tadorna
ferruginea. The obtained models stated that differences in the absolute levels of FIDs
were mostly related to starting distance (Effect size = 0.62), to which is added a relatively
little
effect
of
wetland
status,
taxonomic
differences,
temporal
scale,
body
size,
flock
size,
species
composition
of
the
flock
and
bird
activity.
More
specifically,
FID
was
lower
in
smaller
and
homospecific
groups
at
early
winter
in
the
protected
wetland.
Reserve managers in North Africa could use species and context- specific FIDs
in delineating appropriate buffer areas and in the design of management initiatives
aimed at minimising eventual potential threat due to human disturbance and guaranteeing
animal
welfare
and
wildlife.