Behavioural impact assessment of unmanned aerial vehicles on Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii)

Laborie Joris; Christiansen Fredrik; Beedholm Kristian; Madsen Peter Teglberg; Heerah Karine

摘要

The rapid increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in wildlife research has raised concerns about its potential negative impact on animals. The paucity of studies and the variability of responses of pinnipeds to UAVs prompts the need for species-specific impact assessments. Here we assessed the potential behavioural impact of low altitude UAVs on Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii). This is a preliminary step to envisage the feasibility of replacing and/or complementing traditional ground-based behavioural and morphometric measurements by potentially less invasive UAV aerial images. We flew a small UAV (DJI Mavic 2 zoom fitted with a phocid seal audiogram weighted source level of 84 dB re 20 mu Pa (rms)) over 37 Weddell seals (3 adult males, 12 adult females and 22 mother-pup pairs) during the breeding season at Dumont D'Urville, East Antarctica. For each individual, we assessed the level of reaction during UAV overflights at three altitudes (25, 20 and 15 m) while factoring in pup presence and wind speed. For all altitudes and observations pooled together, Weddell seals predominantly (88%) showed little (vigilant) or no (resting) reactions towards the UAV. Moreover, only 27% of all individuals changed their initial activity during the sampling periods, and mothers rarely ended their nursing bouts (3%). While reactions were low overall, the probability of a stronger reaction occurring increased at lower altitudes, and varied among individuals. Neither the presence of pups nor a change in wind speed appear to influence individuals' response to the UAV significantly. However, on simpler histogram representations of the dataset, we observed the strongest reactions for females (n = 5) with a pup at wind speeds below 5 m.s(-1) when ambient noise levels were lowest. While Weddell seals are likely to hear the UAV at 25 to 15 m altitude in low wind speeds, the low-level responses we observed are unlikely to negatively impact their energetic budget and/or reproductive success. Our results suggest a low impact of small UAV overflights of Weddell seals during the breeding season when flying = 25 m. This allows for collection of high resolution images for behavioural and morphometric studies that can potentially replace more invasive data collection when capturing and handling the animals.

机译：在野生动物研究中使用无人航空公司（无人机）的快速增加提高了对动物潜在的负面影响的担忧。少女对无人机对无人机的研究和变异性促使需要特异性的影响评估。在这里，我们评估了低海拔无人机在Weddell密封件上的潜在行为影响（Leptonychotes Weddellii）。这是设想通过潜在更少的侵入式UAV航空图像更换和/或补充传统地基行为和形态测量的可行性的初步步骤。我们飞行了一个小无人机（Dji Mavic 2 Zoom配备了Phocid Seal AudioGram加权源电量，超过37个Weddell密封件（3成年男性，12名成人女性和22个母狗对）南南南极洲杜蒙迪瓦尔的繁殖季节。对于每个人，我们评估了在三个高度（25,20和15米）的无人机过渡期间的反应水平，同时考虑PUP存在和风速。对于汇集在一起的所有海拔和观察，主要（88％）显示韦德尔密封件（88％）表现出少量（警惕）或对无人机的反应（休息）反应。此外，只有27％的人在采样期间只改变了他们的初步活动，母亲很少结束他们的护理伴侣（3％）。虽然整体反应较低，但在较低的海拔地区发生更强反应的可能性增加，并且在个体中变化。幼崽的存在也不是风速的变化似乎显着影响个人对无人机的反应。然而，在数据集的简单直方图表示上，当环境噪声水平最低时，我们观察了在5米（-1）的风速下的幼崽时对女性（n = 5）的最强烈反应。虽然Weddell Seals可能会在低风速下听到25至15米的高度，但我们观察到的低级响应不太可能对他们的能量预算和/或生殖成功产生负面影响。我们的结果表明，在繁殖季节飞行时，小无人机对韦德尔密封件的影响力很低> = 25米。这允许在捕获和处理动物时可能替换更多侵入性数据收集的行为和形态学研究的高分辨率图像。

Behavioural impact assessment of unmanned aerial vehicles on Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii)

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