INVESTIGADORES
GRAÑA GRILLI Maricel
artículos
Título:
Drones as a threat to wildlife: YouTube complement science in providing evidence about their effect
Autor/es:
REBOLO, N; GRAÑA GRILLI, M; LAMBERTUCCI, S.A.
Revista:
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION
Editorial:
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
Referencias:
Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2019
ISSN:
0376-8929
Resumen:
Dronesare becoming very common in our skies, and several concerns on their use havebeen raised. However, most of those concerns refer to people?s privacy, or therisk for infrastructure and people, but not to their possible impact onwildlife. We used the sparse information available from scientific literatureon the effects of drones on wildlife and complement it with information collectedfrom the Internet (YouTube) to evaluate if recreational activities produce evidentbehavioural responses from wildlife. Scientificpapers specifically evaluating the effect of drones on wildlife are scarce butincreasing. Nonetheless, videos of drones disturbing animals are abundant. Wefound that many species from different taxonomic groups and multiple countriespresented behavioural responses to drone overflights. Furthermore, 26% of thespecies that were disturbed are included in one of the IUCN categories ofthreat. On the other hand, we found that wildlife that use aerial andterrestrial habitats are more likely to respond with an evident behaviouralresponse than those that occupy aquatic habitats. Those impacts areproduced by people using drones worldwide and to multiple species of insects,reptiles, birds and mammals. The webis becoming a source of evidence of disturbances to wildlife that should beconsidered, particularly for recreational activities. We advocate for the use of this clearly useful technology,but pose that funding and effort should be devoted to evaluating drones impacts.We call for educative programs for lay people that use drones forrecreation, and more research and regulations on their use in wildlife sensitiveareas.