Effects of helicopter operations on emperor penguin chicks

Creching emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) chickswere exposed to two overflights by an S-76 twin engine helicopter at 1000 m: a current operational guideline for helicopter activity in Antarctica. The flights were conducted on the same day but under different wind conditions: a morning flight with a 10 kt (18 km.hr-1) katabatic blowing perpendicular to the direction of helicopter travel and an afternoon flight with virtually no wind. Background noise levels recorded in the morning, before the helicopter flight, were significantly higher than in the afternoon, but these differences were not detectable when the helicopter was overhead. There were also no significant differences in the way chicks responded to helicopters between the morning and afternoon flight. All chicks became more vigilant when the helicopter approached and 69% either walked or ran, generally moving less than 10 m toward other chicks (i.e. not scattering). Most chicks (83%) displayed flipper-flapping, probably indicating nervous apprehension. This behaviour was seldom displayed in the absence of disturbance. Although all effects were relatively transitory, results support the introduction of more conservative guidelines for helicopter operations around breeding localities of this species.

The fields in this dataset are:

Time
Action
Date
Lying
Standing
Walking
Preening
Flapping

集群的帝企鹅（Aptenodytes forsteri）雏鸟暴露于S-76双引擎直升机在1000米高度的两次飞越下——这是南极地区直升机活动的现行操作指南。两次飞行在同一天进行，但风力条件不同：上午飞行时，10节（18 km/h）的下降风（katabatic wind）垂直于直升机飞行方向吹拂；下午飞行时则几乎无风。上午直升机飞行前记录的背景噪声水平显著高于下午，但当直升机飞越头顶时，这些差异无法被检测到。雏鸟对直升机的反应方式在上午和下午飞行之间也没有显著差异。当直升机接近时，所有雏鸟均变得更为警觉；69%的雏鸟会行走或奔跑，且通常向其他雏鸟移动不到10米（即不分散）。大多数雏鸟（83%）表现出鳍状肢拍打行为，这可能表明其处于紧张不安状态。在无干扰的情况下，这种行为很少出现。尽管所有影响相对短暂，但研究结果支持为该物种繁殖地周边的直升机操作制定更为保守的指南。

数据集包含以下字段：时间（Time）、行为（Action）、日期（Date）、卧姿（Lying）、站立（Standing）、行走（Walking）、理毛（Preening）、拍打（Flapping）