vandongen-theheightof-2015.pdf (2.14 MB)
The height of approaching humans does not affect flight-initiation distance
journal contribution
posted on 2015-01-01, 00:00 authored by Wouter Van Dongen, E M McLeod, R A Mulder, Mike WestonMike Weston, Patrick GuayPatrick GuayCapsule: Responses of animals to anthropogenic disturbances are often quantified using flight-initiation distance, the distance at which an animal flees a stimulus such as a person. We showed that the height of 20 researchers, selected to represent a diversity of heights, did not affect estimates of flight-initiation distance of Black Swans Cygnus atratus, suggesting that the height of humans used to test hypotheses of flight-initiation distances is not a confounding variable.