Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are relatively new technologies gaining popularity among wildlife biologists. As with any new tool in wildlife science, operating protocols must be developed through rigorous protocol testing. Few studies have been conducted that quantify the impacts UAS may have on unhabituated individuals in the wild using standard aerial survey protocols. We evaluated impacts of unmanned surveys by measuring UAS‐induced behavioral responses during the nesting phase of lesser snow geese (Anser caerulescens caerulescens) in Wapusk National Park, Manitoba, Canada. We conducted surveys with a fixed‐wing Trimble UX5 and monitored behavioral changes via discreet surveillance cameras at 25 nests. Days with UAS surveys resulted in decreased resting and increased nest maintenance, low scanning, high scanning, head‐cocking and off‐nest behaviors when compared to days without UAS surveys. In the group of birds flown over, head‐cocking for overhead vigilance was rarely seen prior to launch or after landing (mean estimates 0.03% and 0.02%, respectively) but increased to 0.56% of the time when the aircraft was flying overhead suggesting that birds were able to detect the aircraft during flight. Neither UAS survey altitude nor launch distance alone in this study was strong predictors of nesting behaviors, although our flight altitudes (≥75 m above ground level) were much higher than previously published behavioral studies. Synthesis and applications: The diversity of UAS models makes generalizations on behavioral impacts difficult, and we caution that researchers should design UAS studies with knowledge that some minimal disturbance is likely to occur. We recommend flight designs take potential behavioral impacts into account by increasing survey altitude where data quality requirements permit. Such flight designs should consider a priori knowledge of focal species’ behavioral characteristics. Research is needed to determine whether any such disturbance is a result of visual or auditory stimuli.

Conspecific brood parasitism allows females to exploit other females' nests and enhance their reproductive output. Here, we test a recent theoretical model of how host females gain inclusive fitness from brood parasitism. High levels of relatedness between host and parasitizer can be maintained either by: (a) kin recognizing and parasitizing each other as a form of cooperative breeding or (b) natal philopatry and nest site fidelity facilitating the formation of kin groups, thereby increasing the probability of parasitism between relatives nesting in close proximity. To address these two hypotheses we genotyped feathers and hatch membranes of common eiders (Somateria mollissima) from western Hudson Bay, Canada, using a noninvasive sampling methodology. We found that most instances of brood parasitism do result in inclusive fitness gains. Furthermore, females with failed nests moved an average of 492 m from their previous year's nest site, while successful females only moved an average of 13 m. Therefore, we observed host–parasite relatedness can occur at levels higher than would be expected by chance even in the absence of kin grouping, suggesting that closely related females nesting near one another is not essential to maintain high host–parasitizer relatedness. In addition, kin grouping is only a transient phenomenon that cannot occur every year due to the propensity for females of failed nests to nest farther away from their nest site in subsequent years than females with successful nests, which provides support for kin recognition as a more likely mechanism to maintain high host–parasitizer relatedness over time.

No abstract

Drones may be valuable in polar research because they can minimize researcher activity and overcome logistic, financial, and safety obstacles associated with wildlife research in Polar Regions. Because Polar species may be particularly sensitive to disturbance and some research suggests behavioral responses to drones are species-specific, there is a need for focal species-specific disturbance assessments. We evaluated behavioral responses of nesting Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima, n =19 incubating females) to first, second, or in a few cases third exposure of fixed-wing drone surveys using nest cameras. We found no effect of drone flights (F1,23 = 0, P < 1.0) or previous exposures (F1,23 = 0.75, P = 0.397) on the probability of a daily recess event (bird leaves nests). Drone flights did not impact recess length (F1,25 = 1.34, P = 0.26); however, eiders with prior drone exposure took longer recess events (F1,25 = 5.27, P = 0.03). We did not observe any overhead vigilance behaviors common in other species while the drone was in the air, which may reflect eider’s anti-predator strategies of reducing activity at nests in response to aerial predators. Surveying nesting common eider colonies with a fixed-wing drone did not result in biologically meaningful behavioral changes, providing a potential tool for research and monitoring this Polar nesting species.