ccollop poster - assessing the potential for conflict between birds and human activities
TRANSCRIPT
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Email: [email protected] Twitter: @muddybirder LinkedIn: Catherine Collop
Assessing the potential for conflict between birds and human activities
CATHERINE COLLOP Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University
THE PROBLEM Poole Harbour (Figure 2), like many estuarine sites, supports internationally significant numbers of wintering waders and wildfowl whilst also being important for human activities (Figures 1 & 4), so there is considerable potential for human-wildlife conflict.
Figure 1: As well as by the birds, Poole Harbour is used by anglers, pedestrians, dog walkers, bait diggers, kite surfers and more.
On sites of conservation importance, managers may take steps to minimise the impacts of disturbance by regulating the human activities with the greatest impact. However, disturbance doesn’t necessarily lead to population decline1. The level of impact (Figure 3) depends on: • the frequency of the activity; • whether the activity and birds occur at the same time and place; • how costly it is for birds to respond to the disturbance; and • whether birds are able to compensate for the costs of responding. I aim to develop an understanding of these factors , which is necessary for determining what conservation measures are likely to be most effective at any given site.
APPLICATIONS & CONCLUSIONS
THE DATA I used instantaneous scan sampling2 to help understand the activities that occur around Poole Harbour, UK, in the winter. Results of 324 scans from 58 survey periods over two winter seasons are shown in Figures 4 & 5.
References 1. Gill et al. (2001). Biological Conservation 97: 265-268. 2. Altmann (1974). Behaviour 49: 227-267. 3. Collop et al. (In preparation). 4. Blumstein et al. (2003). Biological Conservation 110: 97-100. 5. Glover et al. (2011). Landscape and Urban Planning 103: 326-334.
Image credits
Dunlin flock: © Markus Hoppe. Map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data:
© Crown copyright 2013. All other images: © Catherine Collop.
Figure 2: Poole Harbour is
internationally important for
wintering birds, and a popular site
for recreation.
Figure 4: Different types of disturbance occur more frequently than others.
Figure 5: Activities are not evenly distributed across shore levels.
Figure 3: Scenarios when disturbance may be a problem.
This method offers an alternative approach to simply considering activity frequency or visible response, alone, which can otherwise lead to over-precautionary measures being put in place. And activity restrictions or codes of practice are more likely to be adhered to if they are trusted by the site users5. The index of disturbance could therefore be a useful tool to inform the decision-making process and communicate the conservation measures, thus increasing the chances that they will be successful; allowing sites to continue to be used by a variety of stakeholders without compromising their conservation status.
I am using these results to develop a method for comparing the potential impacts of disturbance from different recreational activities. This index of disturbance (Figure 6) could also be used to identify the most effective conservation measures by predicting how the value of the index (0 = no problem; 1 = considerable problem) would change under different management scenarios.
Figure 6: Index of disturbance – a method for comparing disturbance types and management approaches.
I also undertook disturbance experiments to measure the varying responses of birds to different activities. Birds’ responses were highly variable between species, and depend on environmental conditions, food availability and activity type3 – this result
fits patterns observed at other sites4.