{"title":"评估基于无人机的技术对加拿大太平洋沿岸城市筑巢的海鸥种群进行普查","authors":"L. Blight, D. Bertram, Edward Kroc","doi":"10.1139/juvs-2019-0005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, in wildlife monitoring has increased in recent years, particularly in hard-to-access habitats. We used fixed-wing and quadcopter drones to census an urban-nesting population of Glaucous-winged Gulls in Victoria, Canada. We conducted our study over 2 years and asked whether (i) drones represent a suitable survey method for rooftop-nesting gulls in our study region; and (ii) Victoria’s urban gull population had increased since the last survey >30 years earlier. Using orthomosaic imagery derived from drone overflights, we estimated at least a threefold increase over the 1986 count reported for the entire city (from 114 to 346 pairs), and an approximate tenfold increase in the number of gulls nesting in the downtown core. Drones proved to be an excellent platform from which to census rooftop-nesting birds: occupied nests were readily discernible in our digital imagery, and incubating birds were undisturbed by drones. This lack of disturbance may be due to Victoria’s location in an aerodrome; gulls experience dozens of floatplane and helicopter flights per day and are likely habituated to air traffic. Glaucous-winged Gulls have declined considerably at their natural island colonies in the region since the 1980s. Our results indicate that although urban roofs provide replacement nesting habitat for this species, local gull populations have not simply relocated en masse from islands to rooftops in the region.","PeriodicalId":45619,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2019-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1139/juvs-2019-0005","citationCount":"9","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Evaluating UAV-based techniques to census an urban-nesting gull population on Canada’s Pacific coast\",\"authors\":\"L. Blight, D. Bertram, Edward Kroc\",\"doi\":\"10.1139/juvs-2019-0005\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"The use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, in wildlife monitoring has increased in recent years, particularly in hard-to-access habitats. We used fixed-wing and quadcopter drones to census an urban-nesting population of Glaucous-winged Gulls in Victoria, Canada. We conducted our study over 2 years and asked whether (i) drones represent a suitable survey method for rooftop-nesting gulls in our study region; and (ii) Victoria’s urban gull population had increased since the last survey >30 years earlier. Using orthomosaic imagery derived from drone overflights, we estimated at least a threefold increase over the 1986 count reported for the entire city (from 114 to 346 pairs), and an approximate tenfold increase in the number of gulls nesting in the downtown core. Drones proved to be an excellent platform from which to census rooftop-nesting birds: occupied nests were readily discernible in our digital imagery, and incubating birds were undisturbed by drones. This lack of disturbance may be due to Victoria’s location in an aerodrome; gulls experience dozens of floatplane and helicopter flights per day and are likely habituated to air traffic. Glaucous-winged Gulls have declined considerably at their natural island colonies in the region since the 1980s. Our results indicate that although urban roofs provide replacement nesting habitat for this species, local gull populations have not simply relocated en masse from islands to rooftops in the region.\",\"PeriodicalId\":45619,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":1.3000,\"publicationDate\":\"2019-11-08\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1139/juvs-2019-0005\",\"citationCount\":\"9\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1139/juvs-2019-0005\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q3\",\"JCRName\":\"REMOTE SENSING\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1139/juvs-2019-0005","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"REMOTE SENSING","Score":null,"Total":0}
Evaluating UAV-based techniques to census an urban-nesting gull population on Canada’s Pacific coast
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, in wildlife monitoring has increased in recent years, particularly in hard-to-access habitats. We used fixed-wing and quadcopter drones to census an urban-nesting population of Glaucous-winged Gulls in Victoria, Canada. We conducted our study over 2 years and asked whether (i) drones represent a suitable survey method for rooftop-nesting gulls in our study region; and (ii) Victoria’s urban gull population had increased since the last survey >30 years earlier. Using orthomosaic imagery derived from drone overflights, we estimated at least a threefold increase over the 1986 count reported for the entire city (from 114 to 346 pairs), and an approximate tenfold increase in the number of gulls nesting in the downtown core. Drones proved to be an excellent platform from which to census rooftop-nesting birds: occupied nests were readily discernible in our digital imagery, and incubating birds were undisturbed by drones. This lack of disturbance may be due to Victoria’s location in an aerodrome; gulls experience dozens of floatplane and helicopter flights per day and are likely habituated to air traffic. Glaucous-winged Gulls have declined considerably at their natural island colonies in the region since the 1980s. Our results indicate that although urban roofs provide replacement nesting habitat for this species, local gull populations have not simply relocated en masse from islands to rooftops in the region.