Escape distance

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After falling below their flight distance, pigeons that fly up

The concept of flight distance ( english flight distance (FID) ) was designed by the Swiss zoologist Heini Hediger 1934 formulated for those minimum distance that a pet to another, potentially threatening creatures accepted without flee from the potential attacker. Animals with a long flight distance are colloquially considered to be "shy".

Escape distance (English: flight initiation distance (FID) ) plus "X" as a buffer between a hiking trail (English: trail ) and a protected area (English: critical wildlife area )
Feed-conditioned pigeons and a gray squirrel in Washington Square Park , New York

However, flight distance means two things: first, the minimum distance, below which triggers an escape ( English flight initiation distance , FID) and, secondly, the distance that is established by flight for the aligned triggering object.

The escape distance is usually part of the innate escape behavior . However, it can be adapted to the living conditions of a certain area through experience, for example by imitating the behavior of older animals of the same species. For example, wild rabbits in densely populated areas quickly learn that dogs that are on a leash, i.e. running next to humans, do not pose any danger to them ( national park effect ). The escape distance is not an independent physical quantity, but is influenced by various factors; under certain conditions it can also turn out completely different. The distance established by escape is greater (in the case of reindeer), for example, if the person who triggered the escape is seen at a greater distance, and it is particularly large in July and particularly small between September and October. The larger a herd of reindeer, the shorter the distance its members have to flee, both in terms of the minimum triggering distance and the distance established by flight. The escape distance also varies according to the habitat , the source of the disturbance, the frequency of disturbances, the way in which a strange living being approaches, the status of the abandoned animal - e.g. B. according to gender and personal constitution (motherhood, nutritional status, rutting) - and the possibility of escape (distance to a tree in the case of gray squirrels on the ground).

The escape preferences can also be understood as part of the escape distance: Refugee reindeer preferred, as far as all options are open, to escape uphill and with the wind versus a flat or downward escape route or against the wind.

The domestication of animals regularly leads to a reduction in the distance to escape from humans and other living beings, since all highly escape-oriented individuals are quickly lost to the breeding groups. (In this context, H. Hediger pointed out the necessary closeness during milking , which the domesticated cow tolerates.) However, individual wild animals that humans are used to may have reduced their shyness to such an extent that a squirrel can be fed in the city park or a bear becomes intrusive in a national park.

Closely related to the flight distance is the aggression distance ( english distance of aggression ), so the minimum distance that must to be true, to avoid being attacked.

A lack of escape distance can also be the cause of psychological disorders or dangerous illnesses : For example, rabies disease can lead to the complete loss of escape impulses.

literature

  • Hans-Heiner Bergmann , Volkhard Wille: Escape or get used to? Defense strategies of wild animals in response to disturbance situations. In: Peter Sturm, Notker Mallach (ed.): Störungsökologie (= Laufen seminar contributions ). No. 1. Bavarian Academy for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management (ANL), 2001, ISBN 978-3-931175-59-7 , ISSN 0175-0852 , pp. 17-21 ( archive.org [PDF]).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Margaret Altmann: The flight distance in free-ranging big game. In: The Journal of Wildlife Management , 1958, pp. 207-209.
  2. ^ M. Ruddock, DP Whitfield: A Review of Disturbance Distances in Selected Bird Species, A report from Natural Research (Projects) Ltd to Scottish Natural Heritage . Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  3. ↑ Thomas Bregnballe, Kim Aaen, Anthony D. Fox: Escape distances from human pedestrians by staging waterbirds in a Danish wetland. In: Wildfowl. Special Issue 2, 2009, pp. 115–130, ( full text (PDF) ( Memento from September 5, 2019 in the Internet Archive ))
  4. ↑ a b Lawrence M. Dill, Robert Houtman: The influence of distance to refuge on flight initiation distance in the gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). In: Canadian Journal of Zoology 67, No. 1, 1989, pp. 233-235, doi: 10.1139 / z89-033 .
  5. ↑ a b Andrea M. Runyan, Daniel T. Blumstein: Do individual differences influence flight initiation distance? In: Journal of Wildlife Management 68, No. 4, 2004, pp. 1124-1129.
  6. ↑ a b c d Eigil Reimers, et al .: Flight by feral reindeer Rangifer tarandus tarandus in response to a directly approaching human on foot or on skis. In: Wildlife Biology 12, No. 4, 2006, pp. 403-413.
  7. ↑ Hans-Heiner Bergmann, Volkhard Wille: Escape or get used to? - Wildlife defense strategies in response to disruptive situations . In: Peter Sturm, Notker Mallach (ed.): Störungsökologie (=  Laufen seminar contributions ). No. 1 . Bavarian Academy for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management (ANL), 2001, ISBN 978-3-931175-59-7 , ISSN  0175-0852 , p. 17–21 ( archive.org [PDF]).
  8. ^ Theodore Stankowich: Ungulate flight responses to human disturbance: a review and meta-analysis. In: Biological Conservation 141, No. 9, 2008, pp. 2159-2173, doi: 10.1016 / j.biocon.2008.06.026 .