Data from: Captures do not affect escape response to humans in Alpine marmot

Capture and manipulation are an integral part of wildlife research and
management. These practices, however, can affect animals either directly
or indirectly, and studies should generally evaluate the consequences of
captures to ensure animal welfare and reduce sampling bias. Here, we
investigated the indirect, behavioural effects of live-capture on escape
response to humans in Alpine marmot Marmota marmota within the Stelvio
National Park (central Italian Alps) over three seasons (2021- 2023). We
used flight initiation distance (FID) as a measure of escape response and
tested it in relation to capture status using linear mixed modelling.
Captures did not have any detectable effect on escape response, and FID
was best explained by covariates such as starting distance, distance to
nearest burrow, current behaviour during the observation and year of
observation. It might be that, in marmots, escape response to humans is a
rather inert behaviour. As such, although we cannot rule out unmeasured
effects, capture may not represent an excessively traumatic experience
which could trigger immediate behavioural modification. In turn, capture
is unlikely to compromise animal welfare or cause scientific bias in
studies investigating escape response in this species, at least over the
short term.