Response of wintering grassland raptors to human disturbance.

Conclusions: The study recorded flushing responses (whether or not an animal fled in response to disturbance) and flush distances of 6 species of diurnal raptors exposed to walking and vehicle disturbances in order to calculate minimum distances for species-specific buffer zones. In general, walking disturbances resulted in more flushing than vehicle disturbances for all species except the prairie falcon. For walking disturbances, a linear relationship existed between flight distance and body mass, with lighter species flushing at shorter distances; however, this trend did not hold for vehicle disturbance. Birds flushed at much shorter distances in response to approaching vehicles. Thresholds/Learnings: Buffer zones that would prevent [...]