Lifting the Veil of Darkness: Thermal Technology Facilitates Collection of Flight-Initiation Distances by Night.

ABSTRACT: Flight-Initiation Distance (FID)-a direct measure of an individual animal's escape response-is a widely used method to study escape ecology in fauna. The technique has primarily been applied to bird species that are active by day. Indexing the escape behaviour of nocturnal species has been limited due to the need for light to detect and observe animals which confounds behavioural responses. We demonstrate the use of existing high-end thermal technology to facilitate standardised, un-biased, nocturnal FIDs in small and large, terrestrial and arboreal animals, which feature initial separation (starting) distances which are the same by day and night. We provide the following (1) method for collecting FIDs by night which specifically addresses solutions to novel challenges associated with coll

SUBMITTER: Rendall AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11576410 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature