Unmanned aircraft systems as a new source of disturbance for wildlife: A systematic review.

ABSTRACT: The use of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS; also known as "drones") for professional and personal-leisure use is increasing enormously. UAS operate at low altitudes (<500 m) and in any terrain, thus they are susceptible to interact with local fauna, generating a new type of anthropogenic disturbance that has not been systematically evaluated. To address this gap, we performed a review of the existent literature about animals' responses to UAS flights and conducted a pooled analysis of the data to determine the probability and intensity of the disturbance, and to identify the factors influencing animals' reactions towards the small aircraft. We found that wildlife reactions depended on both the UAS attributes (flight pattern, engine type and size of aircraft) and the characteristics of

SUBMITTER: Mulero-Pazmany M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5479521 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature