Abstract
The Endangered Red-crowned Crane (Grus japonensis) is one of the most culturally iconic and sought-after species by wildlife tourists. Here we investigate how the presence of tourists influence the vigilance behaviour of cranes foraging in Suaeda salsa salt marshes and S. salsa/Phragmites australis mosaic habitat in the Yellow River Delta, China. We found that both the frequency and duration of crane vigilance significantly increased in the presence of wildlife tourists. Increased frequency in crane vigilance only occurred in the much taller S. salsa/P. australis mosaic vegetation whereas the duration of vigilance showed no significant difference between the two habitats. Crane vigilance declined with increasing distance from wildlife tourists in the two habitats, with a minimum distance of disturbance triggering a high degree of vigilance by cranes identified at 300 m. The presence of wildlife tourists may represent a form of disturbance to foraging cranes but is habitat dependent. Taller P. australis vegetation serves primarily as a visual obstruction for cranes, causing them to increase the frequency of vigilance behaviour. Our findings have important implications for the conservation of the migratory red-crowned crane population that winters in the Yellow River Delta and can help inform visitor management.
Highlights
As public awareness about the plight of nature increases and digital photography and transportation become more affordable and accessible, recreational activities that involve wildlife watching and photography are becoming more popular worldwide[1,2]
Whether cranes are exposed to some form of disturbance by nature photographers/ wildlife watchers in this wetland habitat mosaic, whether the taller P. australis vegetation provide the cranes with sufficient shelter or act as a visual obstruction, or how these vegetation changes may influence crane vigilance behaviour remains unknown
We hypothesized that: (i) foraging cranes would increase their vigilance in the presence of wildlife tourist activitites; (ii) the impact of wildlife tourist presence on crane vigilance differs between the two foraging habitats i.e. the presence of wildlife tourists would increase vigilance if P. australis vegetation acts as a visual obstruction, or reduce vigilance by cranes if the P. australis functions as a refuge
Summary
As public awareness about the plight of nature increases and digital photography and transportation become more affordable and accessible, recreational activities that involve wildlife watching and photography are becoming more popular worldwide[1,2]. In many developing countries such as China, more and more people are pursuing outdoor wildlife photography as a result of the country’s recent improved economic circumstances[3,4,5] Activities such as wildlife photography are widely considered as a means to increase the public awareness of wildlife conservation and natural history by revealing images and videos of animals and their behaviour[3,6]. We explore how human activity in the form of wildlife tourism (i.e. bird photography and bird watching) affects the vigilance behaviour of migratory Red-crowned Cranes in two different foraging habitats - S. salsa salt marshes (hereafter short S. salsa habitat) and a mosaic of S. salsa - P. australis habitat (hereafter taller P. australis mosaic habitat) (Fig. 1). Flock size, age structure and the distance from the observer or nearest road to the individuals under observations were considered when assessing the changes in crane vigilance behaviour to wildlife tourist presence
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