Take only pictures, leave only... Cameras influence marmot vigilance but not perceptions of risk
Abstract
Abstract Ecotourism provides an opportunity to experience nature that may promote its conservation. Ecotourists photograph wildlife, and photography plays an important role in focusing public's attention on nature. Although photography is believed to be a low‐impact activity, how the visual stimulus of cameras influences wildlife remains unknown. Since animals are known to fear eyes pointed towards them because of similarity to predator eyes, we predicted that cameras with zoom lens would increase vigilance. Using yellow‐bellied marmots ( Marmota flaviventer ) and adopting a behavioural approach to identify marmots' response to photography, we experimentally quantified proportion of time allocated to vigilance during foraging and flight initiation distance (FID, the distance at which a marmot started to flee from an approaching human) towards humans with and without a camera. We focused on time allocated to vigilance measured in three ways: the proportion of time when marmots moved their head and body towards observers (looking towards observer), the proportion of time when marmots moved their head away from observers (looking away from observer) and the total vigilance (sum of looking towards and away from observer). While a camera was pointed at a marmot, individuals allocated more time to looking towards the observer and less time to looking away from the observer than they did without a camera. However, the total proportion of time allocated to vigilance was not different when marmots were approached by humans with and without a camera. Additionally, whether or not an observer was carrying a camera had no effect on FID. Our results indicated that cameras distracted marmots but did not influence their subsequent risk assessment; marmots may be curious about cameras but were not threatened by them. However, capturing an individual's attention may reduce their ability to look out for predators and thus may increase vulnerability to predation. Regulating photography in locations where predation risk is high or vulnerable species ranges' overlap with humans may be required.
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Cited By (4 times, 1 in Knowledge Hub)
References (46)
8 in Knowledge Hub, 38 external