European birds adjust their flight initiation distance to road speed limits

Legagneux, Pierre; Ducatez, Simon

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0417

Cited by 86 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…Birds would have from 0.3 to less than 0.1 s to make escape maneuvers in those portions of the flight, which may not be enough time to allow them a successful avoidance. There is some evidence that birds increase flight initiation distances with increases in vehicle speed, contrary to our assumption (Legagneux and Ducatez, 2013;DeVault et al, 2014), so our estimates of how much earlier birds respond to aircraft with radar in flight may be conservative. How birds might respond to radar at higher speeds, similar to aircraft in flight, is difficult to determine, and requires further study.…”

Section: Applied Implicationscontrasting

confidence: 64%

The effects of radar on avian behavior: Implications for wildlife management at airports

Sheridan

Randolet

DeVault

et al. 2015

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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Section: Applied Implicationscontrasting

confidence: 64%

The effects of radar on avian behavior: Implications for wildlife management at airports

Sheridan

Randolet

DeVault

et al. 2015

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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“…Interestingly, birds also show behavioural adaptations to road traffic, e.g. Legagneux and Ducatez (2013) found that individuals of common European species adjusted their flight initiation distance (an indicator of escape propensity) to the speed limits of roads, with earlier escape (longer flight initiation distances) on roads with higher speed limits.…”

Section: Habitat Urbanization and Its Effects On Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat urbanization and its effects on birds

Seress

Liker²

2015

Acta Zool Acad Sci H

183

135

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By transforming landscapes, human activity creates new types of habitats with altered environmental characteristics that never existed before. As the process of habitat urbanization bears impact on more and more natural habitats, it is essential for us to understand the changes we bring forth in the ecological forces shaping urban animal communities. Birds are perhaps the most frequently studied model organisms by urban ecologists. It is a well known general pattern that urban avian communities have typically reduced species richness, while the density of a few successful species is often higher in cities than in adjacent more natural habitats. But it is less understood which mechanisms generate and uphold these community-level changes. In this review we discuss the most important components of the urban environment influencing birds' physiology, behaviour or morphology, and compile several recent studies to illustrate their effects. To understand urban food webs we also review the results of bottom-up and top-down approach which suggest that altered food availability and predation may play key roles in forming recent urban bird communities. We encourage future research to focus more on experimental, manipulative studies, that would help us not just to realize general patterns but shed more light on the mechanisms, the underlying processes prompting changes in urban bird communities.

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“…Erritzoe, Mazgajski & Rejt, ; Van Langevelde & Jaarsma, ; Ramp, Wilson & Croft, ; Seiler & Helldin, ; see also Wang & Frost, ). For instance, Legagneux & Ducatez () found that birds increased the distance at which they would flee from an approaching vehicle in roads with higher speed limits, presumably to reduce the chances of collision. However, despite these behavioural adjustments, animals may have difficulty estimating approaching distance/time at high speeds.…”

Section: Roads and Vehicles As Novel Threatsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal reactions to oncoming vehicles: a conceptual review

et al. 2014

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Animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs) are a substantial problem in a human-dominated world, but little is known about what goes wrong, from the animal's perspective, when a collision occurs with an automobile, boat, or aircraft. Our goal is to provide insight into reactions of animals to oncoming vehicles when collisions might be imminent. Avoiding a collision requires successful vehicle detection, threat assessment, and evasive behaviour; failures can occur at any of these stages. Vehicle detection seems fairly straightforward in many cases, but depends critically on the sensory capabilities of a given species. Sensory mechanisms for detection of collisions (looming detectors) may be overwhelmed by vehicle speed. Distractions are a likely problem in vehicle detection, but have not been clearly demonstrated in any system beyond human pedestrians. Many animals likely perceive moving vehicles as non-threatening, and may generally be habituated to their presence. Slow or minimal threat assessment is thus a likely failure point in many AVCs, but this is not uniformly evident. Animals generally initiate evasive behaviour when a collision appears imminent, usually employing some aspect of native antipredator behaviour. Across taxa, animals exhibit a variety of behaviours when confronted with oncoming vehicles. Among marine mammals, right whales Eubalaena spp., manatees Trichechus spp., and dugongs Dugong dugon are fairly unresponsive to approaching vehicles, suggesting a problem in threat assessment. Others, such as dolphins Delphinidae, assess vehicle approach at distance. Little work has been conducted on the behavioural aspects of AVCs involving large mammals and automobiles, despite their prevalence. Available observations suggest that birds do not usually treat flying aircraft as a major threat, often allowing close approach before taking evasive action, as they might in response to natural predators. Inappropriate antipredator behaviour (often involving immobility) is a major source of AVCs in amphibians and terrestrial reptiles. Much behavioural work on AVCs remains to be done across a wide variety of taxa. Such work should provide broad phylogenetic generalizations regarding AVCs and insights into managing AVCs.

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European birds adjust their flight initiation distance to road speed limits

Cited by 86 publications

References 20 publications

The effects of radar on avian behavior: Implications for wildlife management at airports

The effects of radar on avian behavior: Implications for wildlife management at airports

Habitat urbanization and its effects on birds

Animal reactions to oncoming vehicles: a conceptual review

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