Anthropogenic noise impairs owl hunting behavior

Mason, J. Tate; McClure, Christopher J. W.; Barber, Jesse R.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.04.009

Cited by 82 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…For plotting purposes, we utilized the top-ranking model (lowest AICc and fewest parameters) for each of the foraging guilds ( Table 2). gas fields and near roadways (Mason et al, 2016;Senzaki et al, 2016). In laboratory settings, both Quinn et al (2006) and Ware et al (2015) demonstrated that ground foraging species spend significantly more time visually scanning for predators when ambient noise is high compared to quiet conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First to Flush: The Effects of Ambient Noise on Songbird Flight Initiation Distances and Implications for Human Experiences with Nature

et al. 2017

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Throughout the world, birds represent the primary type of wildlife that people experience on a daily basis. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that alterations to the acoustic environment can negatively affect birds as well as humans in a variety of ways, and altered acoustics from noise pollution has the potential to influence human interactions with wild birds. Birds respond to approaching humans in a manner analogous to approaching predators, but the context of the interaction can also greatly influence the distance at which a bird initiates flight or escape behavior (i.e., flight initiation distance or FID). Here, we hypothesized that reliance on different sensory modalities to balance foraging and threat detection can influence how birds respond to approaching threats in the presence of background noise. We surveyed 12 songbird species in California and Wyoming and categorized each species into one of three foraging guilds: ground foragers, canopy gleaners, and hawking flycatchers and predicted FIDs to decrease, remain the same and increase with noise exposure, respectively. Contrary to expectations, the canopy gleaning and flycatching guilds exhibited mixed responses, with some species exhibiting unchanged FIDs with noise while others exhibited increased FIDs with noise. However, FIDs of all ground foraging species and one canopy gleaner decreased with noise levels. Additionally, we found no evidence of phylogenetic structure among species' mean FID responses and only weak phylogenetic structure for the relationship between FIDs and noise levels. Although our results provide mixed support for foraging strategy as a predictor of bird response to noise, our finding that most of the species we surveyed have shorter FIDs with increases in noise levels suggest that human observers may be able to approach ground foraging species more closely under noisy conditions. From an ecological perspective, however, it remains unclear whether these mixed responses translate into lost foraging opportunity for hypervigilant birds that flee a threat too soon or greater predation risk due to impaired surveillance for those that only respond once approaching threats are near.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First to Flush: The Effects of Ambient Noise on Songbird Flight Initiation Distances and Implications for Human Experiences with Nature

et al. 2017

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“…Two recent studies have estimated hunting success and hunting efficiency of owls in the presence of anthropogenic noise (Mason et al 2016, Senzaki et al 2016. The conclusions of both these studies were that noise levels corresponding to 120 m from a road and 200 m from a compressor station results in reduced detection of prey (Senzaki et al 2016) and lower capture success of prey (Mason et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The conclusions of both these studies were that noise levels corresponding to 120 m from a road and 200 m from a compressor station results in reduced detection of prey (Senzaki et al 2016) and lower capture success of prey (Mason et al 2016). These estimates of the distance of the noise effect could explain why we did not find lower occupancy of sites by owls at either sites with intermittent traffic noise or chronic noise sources, because a relatively small proportion of the site would be within these distances from a road or industrial noise source, thus there are likely areas within a site where owls are able to hunt.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When hunting at night, owls also use acoustic cues made by prey, such as rustling leaves, etc., to aid in prey capture (Payne 1971, Martin 1990). Increasing industrial noise levels negatively affect the hunting success of Northern Sawwhet Owls (Aegolius acadicus; Mason et al 2016), and reduce the foraging efficiency of Long-eared Owls (Asio otus) and Shorteared Owls (Asio flammeus; Senzaki et al 2016). However, a study on the nocturnal space use of Western Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) found they did not avoid areas affected by anthropogenic noise (Scobie et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effect of industrial noise on owl occupancy in the boreal forest at multiple spatial scales

Shonfield¹,

Bayne²

2017

ACE

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ABSTRACT. Noise in natural environments can mask important acoustic signals used for animal communication. Owls use vocal communication to attract mates and defend territories, and also rely on acoustic cues to locate their prey. Industrial noise has been shown to negatively affect owl hunting success and reduce foraging efficiency by affecting their ability to detect prey, but it is not known if this results in reduced habitat suitability for owls in areas near industrial noise sources. To determine if owls avoid areas surrounding industrial noise sources in northeastern Alberta and at what scale, we acoustically surveyed for owls at sites with chronic industrial noise, sites with intermittent traffic noise, and sites with no noise. We deployed autonomous recording units at multiple stations within each site to detect territorial individuals vocalizing. Detections of owls were extracted from the recordings using automated species recognition and analyzed using occupancy models at two spatial scales. Barred Owls (Strix varia), Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus), and Boreal Owls (Aegolius funereus) were equally likely to occupy both types of noisy sites compared to sites with no noise, indicating that site level occupancy (representing a home range scale) was unaffected by the presence of noise sources on the landscape. On a smaller scale, there was no decline in station level occupancy (representing use of the area surrounding recording stations) at stations with higher noise levels for either of the three owl species. Our study contributes to research on the effects of anthropogenic noise, but suggests the effect on owls is minimal, and unlikely to result in a population change.Effets du bruit industriel sur l'occupation de l'habitat par des hiboux dans la forêt boréale à de multiples échelles spatiales RÉSUMÉ. Le bruit dans l'environnement naturel peut masquer d'importants signaux acoustiques de communication animale. Les hiboux utilisent les communications vocales afin d'attirer un partenaire et pour défendre un territoire, et aussi ils dépendent de leur acuité auditive afin de localiser leurs proies. Il a été démontré que le bruit industriel affecte négativement le succès de chasse des hiboux et diminue l'efficacité d'acquisition de nourriture en affectant leur capacité à détecter les proies, mais on ne sait pas si cela se traduit par une réduction de l'habitat convenable pour les hiboux dans les zones près des sources de bruit industriel. Afin de déterminer si les hiboux évitent les zones entourant les sources de bruit industriel au nord-est de l'Alberta, et à quelle échelle, nous avons échantillonné acoustiquement des sites à bruits industriels chroniques, des sites à bruits intermittents, ainsi que des sites sans bruit. Nous avons déployés des unités autonomes d'enregistrement à plusieurs stations dans chaque site afin de détecter des individus vocalisant dans leur territoire. Les vocalisations de hiboux détectées furent extraites des enregistrements par un système de reconnaissance de l'espèce automati...

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“…Some of the most comprehensive studies on the effects of anthropogenic noise on wildlife have focused on impacts of noise from roads and natural gas extraction activities. In these studies, exposure to road noise resulted in reduced body condition of songbirds (Ware et al 2015, McClure et al 2017 and noise from gas extraction infrastructure impaired hunting success of Northern Saw-whet Owls (Aegolius acadicus; Mason et al 2016) and reduced pairing success of Ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla; Habib et al 2007, Bayne et al 2008. Given the ubiquity of human-created noise across landscapes, e.g., ~ 88% of the continental USA experiences noise levels elevated because of human activities (Mennitt et al 2013), it is important for conservation efforts to evaluate the impact of the acoustic environment on avian behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Location matters: evaluating Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) boom chorus propagation

Raynor¹,

Whalen²,

Brown³

et al. 2017

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ABSTRACT. Anthropogenic disturbances can affect species of conservation concern by influencing their behavior. Of special concern is the possibility that noise from anthropogenic structures in grassland habitats, such as wind turbines and roads, may affect the propagation of the low-frequency boom chorus of lekking male Greater Prairie-Chickens (Tympanuchus cupido). We used sound pressure levels from acoustic recordings taken at 10 leks in the Nebraska Sandhills, USA during 2013 and 2014 in a SPreAD-GIS sound propagation model to make spatial projections of the boom chorus under a variety of conditions including landscape composition, conspecific attendance, and weather. We then used sets of linear mixed models in a model selection process to determine how background noise, female and male lek attendance, time of day, relative humidity, air temperature, and wind speed affected the area of chorus propagation. The predicted area of propagation decreased with increasing background noise (β = -0.09, SE = 0.04) and increased with greater female lek attendance (β = 0.09, SE = 0.03), higher levels of relatively humidity (β = 0.07, SE = 0.03), and higher air temperatures (β = 0.05, SE = 0.03). Our analyses provide new insight on how acoustic, social, and meteorological factors influence an important reproductive behavior in an imperiled prairie grouse. L'emplacement importe : évaluation de la propagation des vocalisations réalisées en choeur chez le Tétras des prairies (Tympanuchus cupido)RÉSUMÉ. Les perturbations d'origine anthropique peuvent influer sur le comportement d'espèces préoccupantes. Dans les milieux de prairie, l'hypothèse selon laquelle le bruit en provenance de structures anthropiques, comme les éoliennes ou les routes, pourrait affecter la propagation des vocalisations à basse fréquence des mâles Tétras des prairies (Tympanuchus cupido) réalisées en choeur dans les leks est particulièrement préoccupante. Nous avons utilisé le niveau de pression acoustique provenant d'enregistrements effectués à 10 leks dans la région des Sandhills du Nebraska, É.-U., en 2013 et 2014, dans un modèle de propagation de sons SPreAD-GIS, afin de faire des projections spatiales des vocalisations selon une variété de conditions, dont la composition du paysage, la présence de conspécifiques et les conditions météorologiques. Nous avons ensuite évalué un ensemble de modèles linéaires mixtes dans un processus de sélection de modèles afin de déterminer si le bruit de fond, la présence de femelles et de mâles dans les leks, le moment du jour, l'humidité relative, la température de l'air et la vitesse du vent avaient un effet sur l'aire de propagation des vocalisations des mâles réalisées en choeur. L'aire de propagation prédite a diminué avec l'augmentation du bruit de fond (β = -0,09, erreur-type = 0,04), et augmenté avec une plus grande présence de femelles au lek (β = 0,09, erreur-type = 0,03), des degrés d'humidité relative plus élevés (β = 0,07, erreur-type = 0,03) et des températures de l'air plus élevées (β = 0,05, erreur-typ...

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Anthropogenic noise impairs owl hunting behavior

Cited by 82 publications

References 13 publications

First to Flush: The Effects of Ambient Noise on Songbird Flight Initiation Distances and Implications for Human Experiences with Nature

First to Flush: The Effects of Ambient Noise on Songbird Flight Initiation Distances and Implications for Human Experiences with Nature

The effect of industrial noise on owl occupancy in the boreal forest at multiple spatial scales

Location matters: evaluating Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) boom chorus propagation

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