Reactions of ground-nesting marine birds to human disturbance in the Canadian Arctic

• Main Author: Mallory, Mark
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic tern; Common Eider; Somateria mollissima; Sterna paradisaea; Xema sabini
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/72861; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/AS-2015-0029

I studied the reactions of five, ground-nesting marine bird species (Arctic tern Sterna paradisaea; Sabine’s gull Xema sabini; common eider Somateria mollissima; long-tailed duck Clangula hyemalis; Ross’ gull Rhodostethia rosea) breeding in the low and high Arctic to disturbance from nearby aircraft, as well as avian flight initiation response to humans approaching on foot. All species except nesting long-tailed ducks and common eiders departed their nest when overhead aircraft were within 200 m, with loafing birds often flying off when aircraft were still 1 km away. There was considerable individual and species-specific variation in responses to approaching humans, with some nesting birds not flushing from their nest until touched by a researcher (e.g., waterfowl; 0 m), while others flushed when people were 400 m away (Ross’s gull). Excluding Ross’s gulls, 95% of the individuals of most species did not initiate flight until humans were ≤ 100 m from the nest, suggesting that this might represent a minimum, suitable “buffer zone” around nesting colonies for non-motorized human activities. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author.