Zaman Muhammad, Tolhurst Bryony A, Zhu Mengyan, Jiang Guangshun
Feline Research Center of Chinese State Forestry and Grassland Administration, College of Wildlife and Protected Areas, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China.
Ecology, Conservation and Zoonosis Research and Enterprise Group, University of Brighton, Brighton BN2 4GJ, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2019 Aug 26;9(9):605. doi: 10.3390/ani9090605.
Humans and dogs initiate measurable escape responses in wild animals including flight initiation distance (FID), with potentially negative consequences. Golden marmots are important prey for endangered carnivores and are subject to human persecution including via marmot baiting with dogs. We quantified FID at four marmot colonies (72 individuals) in the Karakoram range, Pakistan in response to approach by a pedestrian with a leashed dog versus approach by a pedestrian alone (i.e., a control). Additionally, we related FID to background variables of human activity, namely proximity to roads, and presence of other pedestrians in the vicinity of study sites during sampling. We also controlled for potential environmental and social covariates (e.g., group size, age and sex, and colony substrate). Dogs initiated greater FID than pedestrians alone, and there was evidence that roads increased FID. However, these effects were weaker than those of marmot age and colony substrate. FID was greater at lower elevations, but this may reflect the clustering in these zones of human settlements and livestock pasture. Further work is needed elucidate the importance of colony substrate (linked to ease of human persecution), the effect of settlements and pasture, and the impact of increased FID on marmot fitness.
人类和狗会引发包括野生动物逃跑起始距离（FID）在内的可测量的逃避反应，这可能会带来负面影响。金色旱獭是濒危食肉动物的重要猎物，并且遭受包括用狗诱捕旱獭在内的人类迫害。我们在巴基斯坦喀喇昆仑山脉的四个旱獭栖息地（72只个体）对FID进行了量化，以应对牵狗行人靠近与单独行人靠近（即对照）的情况。此外，我们将FID与人类活动的背景变量联系起来，即与道路的接近程度以及采样期间研究地点附近其他行人的存在情况。我们还控制了潜在的环境和社会协变量（例如群体大小、年龄和性别以及栖息地基质）。狗引发的FID比单独行人更大，并且有证据表明道路会增加FID。然而，这些影响比旱獭年龄和栖息地基质的影响要弱。较低海拔处的FID更大，但这可能反映了人类定居点和牲畜牧场在这些区域的聚集情况。需要进一步开展工作以阐明栖息地基质的重要性（与人类迫害的难易程度相关）、定居点和牧场的影响以及FID增加对旱獭适应性的影响。
