Bird damage management in vineyards: Comparing efficacy of a bird psychology-incorporated unmanned aerial vehicle system with netting and visual scaring

Wang, Zihao; Fahey, D.; Lucas, Andrew; Griffin, Andrea S.; Chamitoff, Gregory; Wong, KC

doi:10.1016/j.cropro.2020.105260

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…But crop protection using netting is highly crop‐specific and needs to be evaluated based on local conditions and harvesting needs. Overall, netting is generally considered impractical for large farms, expensive to install and maintain, and subject to wildlife damage (Wang et al 2020). Additionally, before net installation or other forms of goose management, more information is needed on levels of crop damage, how these relate to magpie goose population size, and the net yield loss given the costs of goose management (Montràs‐Janer et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal space use and habitat selection in magpie geese: implications for reducing human‐wildlife conflicts

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Negative interactions between waterbirds and people are increasing. Waterbirds feeding on agricultural crops cause significant losses to farmers worldwide, but so far most research to address these conflicts has been conducted on migratory species in the temperate northern hemisphere. We investigated the space use and habitat selection of the magpie goose (Anseranas semipalmata), a taxonomically distinct waterbird endemic to Australia and southern Papua New Guinea. In tropical northern Australia, magpie geese are protected but are increasingly persecuted by farmers to protect crops during the late dry–early wet season (~Sep–Jan), a bottleneck of natural resources for waterbirds in the monsoonal tropics. Using satellite telemetry of 38 geese spread across 3 seasons (2016–2017, 2017–2018, 2018–2019), we evaluated daily and seasonal space use, individual site fidelity, and habitat selection to determine the extent of use of agricultural fields by geese, and the spatiotemporal scales at which management should be undertaken. Geese used relatively small daily areas (x̄ = 8.2 km2) consistently throughout the late dry–early wet season, and repeatedly used agricultural fields, forested bushlands, and local wetlands. Geese used comparatively large seasonal areas (x̄ = 219.5 km2) encompassing several agricultural areas, and had a low mean overlap between successive weekly core activity areas, indicating that site fidelity rapidly weakened over time. These results suggest that farm‐scale (<30 ha) management of geese is unlikely to be effective because hazed individuals are likely to be replaced soon afterwards. Instead, our findings suggest that goose management should be coordinated strategically at the local (~1,000 ha), or regional (~100,000 ha) scale. Farm‐level management would likely be more effective if implemented in conjunction with the creation of regional sanctuaries where geese could rest and potentially feed undisturbed away from farms. Our findings can be used by wildlife managers for optimizing the location of such sanctuaries and highlight the necessity for management to be adaptive given the opportunistic nature of the species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal space use and habitat selection in magpie geese: implications for reducing human‐wildlife conflicts

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some studies have combined drones with natural stimuli such as distress calls and taxidermied crows, indirectly indicating the presence of a predator, to drive away birds [34][35][36]. It would be interesting to combine distress calls and bird taxidermy with a RobotFalcon to test whether this makes for an even more effective scaring device.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon

Storms

Carere

Musters³

et al. 2022

J. R. Soc. Interface.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Collisions between birds and airplanes can damage aircrafts, resulting in delays and cancellation of flights, costing the international civil aviation industry more than 1.4 billion US dollars annually. Driving away birds is therefore crucial, but the effectiveness of current deterrence methods is limited. Live avian predators can be an effective deterrent, because potential prey will not habituate to them, but live predators cannot be controlled entirely. Thus, there is an urgent need for new deterrence methods. We developed the RobotFalcon, a device modelled after the peregrine falcon, and tested its effectiveness to deter flocks of corvids, gulls, starlings and lapwings. We compared its effectiveness with that of a drone, and of conventional methods routinely applied at a military airbase. The RobotFalcon scared away bird flocks from fields immediately, and these fields subsequently remained free of bird flocks for hours. The RobotFalcon outperformed the drone and the best conventional method at the airbase (distress calls). Importantly, there was no evidence that bird flocks habituated to the RobotFalcon over the course of the fieldwork. We conclude that the RobotFalcon is a practical and ethical solution to drive away bird flocks with all advantages of live predators but without their limitations.

show abstract

“…The interactions of a drone and birds were analyzed by Wang et al [25], who also developed a system for deterring birds in vineyards. In their most recent study, they performed manual flights to compare the efficacy of their system to other pest control strategies (netting and visual tactics) [17]. Moreover, they proposed solutions for autonomous bird detection and trajectory planning in their earlier studies [26], [27].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, visual deterrents, such as decoys, moving lights, and reflective items, are often deemed ineffective because pigeons can rapidly habituate to visual disturbance [16]. Meanwhile, physical barriers, including spikes, wires, nets, or gel repellents, are widely used in urban environments for feral pigeons due to their efficacy [17]. However, these barriers have high initial costs, degrade over time if not taken care of [16], can only be applied to treated areas [18], and are harmful to animals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous Detection and Deterrence of Pigeons on Buildings by Drones

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pigeons may transmit diseases to humans and cause damages to buildings, monuments, and other infrastructure. Therefore, several control strategies have been developed, but they have been found to be either ineffective or harmful to animals and often depend on human operation. This study proposes a system capable of autonomously detecting and deterring pigeons on building roofs using a drone. The presence and position of pigeons were detected in real time by a neural network using images taken by a video camera located on the roof. Moreover, a drone was utilized to deter the animals. Field experiments were conducted in a real-world urban setting to assess the proposed system by comparing the number of animals and their stay durations for over five days against the 21-daytrial experiment without the drone. During the five days of experiments, the drone was automatically deployed 55 times and was significantly effective in reducing the number of birds and their stay durations without causing any harm to them. In conclusion, this study has proven the effectiveness of this system in deterring birds, and this approach can be seen as a fully autonomous alternative to the already existing methods.

show abstract

Bird damage management in vineyards: Comparing efficacy of a bird psychology-incorporated unmanned aerial vehicle system with netting and visual scaring

Cited by 14 publications

References 14 publications

Seasonal space use and habitat selection in magpie geese: implications for reducing human‐wildlife conflicts

Seasonal space use and habitat selection in magpie geese: implications for reducing human‐wildlife conflicts

Deterrence of birds with an artificial predator, the RobotFalcon

Autonomous Detection and Deterrence of Pigeons on Buildings by Drones

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About