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Responses of incubating hooded plovers (Thinornis rubricollis) to disturbance

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Version 2 2024-06-03, 13:12
Version 1 2014-11-26, 12:53
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-03, 13:12 authored by Mike WestonMike Weston, MA Elgar
Hooded Plovers (Thinornis rubricollis) and recreationists co-occur on the ocean beaches of southern Australia, and it has been suggested that disturbance of the breeding birds by humans constitutes a conservation problem. This study examines whether humans disturb incubating Hooded Plovers and places that disturbance in context with naturally occurring disturbances. Incubating Hooded Plovers encountered and responded to a variety of human and natural stimuli. The most common response involved leaving the nest for a period of time (an "absence"), and humans were responsible for 33.1% of time spent off nests. The response rates of incubating birds varied with the type of stimulus, with higher than expected response rates to two species of potentially predatory birds. About 17% of encounters with potential causes of disturbance occurred while birds were already responding to other disturbance, and this prolonged the return to the nest. Absences from the nest that were not apparently caused by disturbance were shorter and less frequent than those caused by external disturbance stimuli. Nest habitat influenced the response to encounters with humans, and on average foredune nests suffered the greatest decrease in attendance per encounter. This study has confirmed that human disturbance is more frequent than natural disturbances, and that humans decrease nest attendance substantially and more than any other source of disturbance.

History

Journal

Journal of coastal research

Volume

23

Pagination

569-576

Location

Coconut Creek, FL

Open access

  • Yes

ISSN

0749-0208

eISSN

1551-5036

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2007, Coastal Education and Research Foundation

Issue

3

Publisher

Coastal Education Research Foundation

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