Premium
Urban parks as shared spaces? The utility of alert distances as indicators of avian tolerance of humans in Stirling, Scotland
Author(s) -
O’Neal Campbell Michael
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2006.00695.x
Subject(s) - intrusion , foraging , urban park , vegetation (pathology) , geography , plan (archaeology) , alarm , ecology , mode (computer interface) , environmental resource management , environmental planning , computer science , environmental science , archaeology , biology , engineering , medicine , geochemistry , pathology , aerospace engineering , geology , operating system
Urban avian foraging is strongly affected by approaching people. Avian alert distances, the instant of a bird's appraisal of human intrusion, have not been studied in a comparative mode for passerines, despite their prominent ecological importance in parks. Alert distances for 13 passerines were examined in parks in Stirling, Scotland, using an innovative approach emphasizing human behaviour and periods between alert and flight distances, termed alert periods. Larger species were less tolerant of humans, although attracted to human wastes. Alert distances also varied according to vegetation variation. Park design may use alert distances to plan vegetation layout as well as reduce disturbing human behaviour.