Rovers minimize human disturbance in research on wild animals

Yvon Le Maho (1, 2) , Jason D Whittington (1, 3, 2) , Nicolas Hanuise (1) , Louise Pereira (1) , Matthieu Boureau (1) , Mathieu Brucker (1) , Nicolas Chatelain (1) , Julien Courtecuisse (1) , Francis Crenner (1) , Benjamin Friess (1) , Edith Grosbellet (1, 4) , Laëtitia Kernaléguen (1) , Frédérique Olivier (5, 6) , Claire Saraux (7) , Nathanaël Vetter (1) , Vincent A. Viblanc (1, 8) , Bernard Thierry (1) , Pascale Tremblay (2) , René Groscolas (1) , Céline Le Bohec (1, 2)

1 DEPE-IPHC - Département Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie
2 Centre Scientifique de Monaco
3 CEES - Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis
4 INCI - Institut des Neurosciences Cellulaires et Intégratives
5 IMAS - Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies [Hobart]
6 John Downer Productions Ltd
7 UMR EME - Ecosystèmes Marins Exploités
8 CEFE - Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive

Investigating wild animals while minimizing human disturbance remains an important methodological challenge. When approached by a remote-operated vehicle (rover) able to make radio-frequency identifications, wild penguins had significantly lower and shorter stress responses (determined by heart rate and behavior) than when approached by humans. Upon immobilization, the rover—unlike humans—did not disorganize colony structure, and stress rapidly ceased. Thus, rovers can reduce human disturbance and the resulting scientific bias.

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement

Yvon Le Maho, Jason D Whittington, Nicolas Hanuise, Louise Pereira, Matthieu Boureau, et al.. Rovers minimize human disturbance in research on wild animals. Nature Methods, 2014, 11, pp.1242-1244. ⟨10.1038/nmeth.3173⟩. ⟨hal-01136622⟩