The behavioral responses of a nocturnal burrowing marsupial (Lasiorhinus latifrons) to drone flight.

Taylor Headland,David Taggart,Bertram Ostendorf

doi:10.1002/ece3.7981

Taylor Headland, David Taggart + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7981

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Abstract

The use of drones in wildlife research and management is increasing. Recent evidence has demonstrated the impact of drones on animal behavior, but the response of nocturnal animals to drone flight remains unknown. Utilizing a lightweight commercial drone, the behavioral response of southern hairy‐nosed wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons) to drone flights was observed at Kooloola Station, Swan Reach, South Australia. All wombats flown over during both day and night flights responded behaviorally to the presence of drones. The response differed based on time of day. The most common night‐time behavior elicited by drone flight was retreat, compared to stationary alertness behavior observed for daytime drone flights. The behavioral response of the wombats increased as flight altitude decreased. The marked difference of behavior between day and night indicates that this has implications for studies using drones. The behavior observed during flights was altered due to the presence of the drone, and therefore, shrewd study design is important (i.e., acclimation period to drone flight). Considering the sensory adaptations of the target species and how this may impact its behavioral response when flying at night is essential.

Highlights

Wildlife ecology and conservation has benefitted over the past decade from the emergence of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as a useful and innovative field research tool (Corcoran et al, 2021; Jiménez López & Mulero-Pázmány, 2019; Linchant et al, 2015)
The results suggest that flight altitude is a significant factor of instigating disturbance behaviors for daytime but night-time drone flight
Little is known on the disturbance behaviors of any nocturnal animal to drone flight; it is likely that the different responses of the wombats to drone flight at night compared to daylight hours was influenced by its sensory adaptations, ability to detect the drone, the sound emitted by the drone, its state of fear and the environmental conditions at the time of drone flight (Bevan et al, 2018)

Summary

Introduction

Wildlife ecology and conservation has benefitted over the past decade from the emergence of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as a useful and innovative field research tool (Corcoran et al, 2021; Jiménez López & Mulero-Pázmány, 2019; Linchant et al, 2015). Their relatively low cost and ease of use has seen them used for wildlife behavior, density and abundance monitoring (Chabot et al, 2015; Hodgson et al, 2013; Vermeulen et al, 2013), animal tracking (Cliff et al, 2018; Muller et al, 2019), antipoaching monitoring (Mulero-Pázmány et al, 2014), recording of songbirds (Wilson et al, 2017), and the mitigation of human– wildlife conflict (Hahn et al, 2017).

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