Testing a key assumption of using drones as frightening devices: do birds perceive drones as risky?

Wildlife managers have recently suggested the use of unmanned aircraft systems or drones as nonlethal hazing tools to deter birds from areas of human-wildlife conflict. However, it remains unclear if birds perceive common drone platforms as threatening. Based on field studies assessing behavioral and physiological responses, it is generally assumed that birds perceive less risk from drones than from predators. However, studies controlling for multiple confounding effects have not been conducted. Our goal was to establish the degree to which the perception of risk by birds would vary between common drone platforms relative to a predator model when flown at different approach types. We evaluated the behavioral responses of individual Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) to 3 drone platforms: a predator model, a fixed-wing resembling an airplane, and a multirotor, approaching either head-on or overhead. Blackbirds became alert earlier (by 13.7 s), alarm-called more frequently (by a ...

野生动物管理者近期提出，可将无人驾驶航空系统（unmanned aircraft systems）或无人机用作非致命性驱离工具，以阻止鸟类进入人兽冲突区域。然而，鸟类是否将常见无人机平台视为威胁仍不明确。基于评估行为与生理反应的实地研究，人们普遍认为鸟类感知到的无人机风险低于捕食者带来的风险。但迄今为止，尚未开展过控制多种混杂效应的研究。我们的目标是确定：当采用不同接近方式飞行时，鸟类对常见无人机平台与捕食者模型的风险感知差异程度。我们评估了红翅黑鹂（Agelaius phoeniceus）个体对三种无人机平台的行为反应：捕食者模型、类飞机固定翼无人机和多旋翼无人机，这些平台分别采用正面接近或头顶接近方式。黑鹂的警觉反应更早出现（提前13.7秒），报警鸣叫频率更高（增加了……）