Disturbances by dog barking increase vigilance in coots Fulica atra |
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Authors: | Christoph Randler |
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Institution: | (1) Institute of Biology I, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 46, 04103 Leipzig, Germany |
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Abstract: | Animals frequently interrupt their activity to look up and to scan their surrounding environment for potential predators (vigilance).
As vigilance and other activities are often mutually exclusive, such behaviours are at the expense of feeding, sleeping or
preening. Authors of many wildlife disturbance studies found that people with free-running dogs provoked the most pronounced
disturbances (e.g. greater flushing distances and more birds affected). However, dogs on leash may also negatively affect
wild animals, and barking dogs may lead to an increase in vigilance. In this study, I tested this hypothesis in coots (Fulica atra) using three different playback procedures: (1) dog barks, (2) conspecific coot alarm calls and (3) chaffinch song. The trials
were conducted in spring and autumn 2005 at three study sites in southwestern Germany. During the dog playbacks, vigilance
increased significantly from 17 to 28%. This increase in vigilance is comparable to the presence of a natural predator. As
expected, vigilance also increased significantly during conspecific coot alarm calls but not during playbacks of the chaffinch
song control. Two main findings result from the study: (1) coots respond to acoustic traits of dogs and may be able to acoustically
recognise this predator and (2) this increase in vigilance might have implications for conservation, especially when considering
buffer zones around sensitive areas. |
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Keywords: | Auditory stimuli Disturbances by dogs Human disturbances Predator recognition Recreation |
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