Setback Distances as a Conservation Tool in Wildlife-Human Interactions: Testing Their Efficacy for Birds Affected by Vehicles on Open-Coast Sandy Beaches

Thomas Schlacher; Michael A Weston; David Lynn; R M Connolly

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071200

Back

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Setback Distances as a Conservation Tool in Wildlife-Human Interactions: Testing Their Efficacy for Birds Affected by Vehicles on Open-Coast Sandy Beaches

Thomas Schlacher, Michael A Weston, David Lynn and R M Connolly

PLoS One, Vol.8(9), e71200

2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071200

Files and links (2)

pdf

PDF - Published Version (Open Access)1.49 MBDownload View

Published VersionPDF - Published Version (Open Access)CC BY V4.0, Open Access

url

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071200View

Published Version

Abstract

wildlife-human interactions

vehicles

birds

In some wilderness areas, wildlife encounter vehicles disrupt their behaviour and habitat use. Changing driver behaviour has been proposed where bans on vehicle use are politically unpalatable, but the efficacy of vehicle setbacks and reduced speeds remains largely untested. We characterised bird-vehicle encounters in terms of driver behaviour and the disturbance caused to birds, and tested whether spatial buffers or lower speeds reduced bird escape responses on open beaches. Focal observations showed that: i) most drivers did not create sizeable buffers between their vehicles and birds; ii) bird disturbance was frequent; and iii) predictors of probability of flushing (escape) were setback distance and vehicle type (buses flushed birds at higher rates than cars). Experiments demonstrated that substantial reductions in bird escape responses required buffers to be wide (> 25 m) and vehicle speeds to be slow (< 30 km h-1). Setback distances can reduce impacts on wildlife, provided that they are carefully designed and derived from empirical evidence. No speed or distance combination we tested, however, eliminated bird responses. Thus, while buffers reduce response rates, they are likely to be much less effective than vehicle-free zones (i.e. beach closures), and rely on changes to current driver behaviour.

Details

Title: Setback Distances as a Conservation Tool in Wildlife-Human Interactions: Testing Their Efficacy for Birds Affected by Vehicles on Open-Coast Sandy Beaches
Authors: Thomas Schlacher (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Michael A Weston (Author) - Deakin University
David Lynn (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
R M Connolly (Author) - Griffith University
Publication details: PLoS One, Vol.8(9), e71200
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Date published: 2013
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0071200
ISSN: 1932-6203
Copyright note: Copyright © 2013 Schlacher et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Organisation Unit: School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99448711102621
Output Type: Journal article

Metrics

77 File views/ downloads

773 Record Views

51 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Ecology

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

Source: InCites