Bajagain Santosh, Karki Jhamak Bahadur, Timilsina Yajna Prasad, Maharjan Menuka, Pradhan Aavas, Pudasaini Nabaraj, Rokka Prashant, Maharjan Surendra
Bird Conservation Nepal Kathmandu Nepal.
School of Forestry and Natural Resource Management, Bird Conservation Nepal Kathmandu Nepal.
Ecol Evol. 2025 Jun 27;15(7):e71643. doi: 10.1002/ece3.71643. eCollection 2025 Jul.
Understanding how animals allocate their time among essential behaviors such as foraging, self-maintenance, and reproduction is critical for effective conservation, especially in human-modified landscapes. The study investigated how Lesser Adjutant Storks () adjust their behavior in response to human disturbance in the Janakinagar-Murtiya Important Bird and Biodiversity Area of Nepal. Using the Focal Animal Sampling method, we captured 600 min of video footage along road transects during the summer of 2023 and winter of 2024. The analysis revealed significant seasonal shifts. During the summer, vigilance dominated the activity budget (47.18%), while feeding was comparatively low (15.06%). In contrast, during winter, storks prioritized feeding (30.33%) over vigilance (23.32%). Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's post hoc tests confirmed that both feeding and vigilance varied significantly across seasons ( < 0.05), suggesting that species adjust their time budgets based on resource availability and predation risk. Moreover, multinomial regression analysis indicated that human disturbance significantly influenced vigilance, with storks in high disturbance areas displaying greater vigilance than those in low disturbance areas ( < 0.05). These findings were further supported by a Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT = 263.82, df = 6, < 0.05), confirming that disturbance level had a significant effect on behavioral variation. Collectively, the study suggests that vigilance behavior increases in both frequency and intensity under higher disturbance, potentially at the cost of feeding time and energy intake. This underscores the importance of minimizing human disturbance and conserving critical foraging habitats to support the long-term survival of the Lesser Adjutant Stork population in increasingly human-dominated landscapes.
了解动物如何在觅食、自我维持和繁殖等基本行为之间分配时间，对于有效的保护工作至关重要，尤其是在人类改造的景观中。该研究调查了小青脚鹬如何在尼泊尔贾纳基纳加尔-穆尔蒂亚重要鸟类和生物多样性地区应对人类干扰来调整其行为。我们采用焦点动物取样法，在2023年夏季和2024年冬季沿着道路样带拍摄了600分钟的视频 footage。分析揭示了显著的季节性变化。夏季，警戒行为在活动预算中占主导地位（47.18%），而觅食行为相对较低（15.06%）。相比之下，冬季时，小青脚鹬将觅食（30.33%）置于警戒（23.32%）之上。Kruskal-Wallis检验和邓恩事后检验证实，觅食和警戒行为在不同季节有显著差异（<0.05），这表明该物种会根据资源可用性和捕食风险来调整其时间预算。此外，多项回归分析表明，人类干扰对警戒行为有显著影响，高干扰区域的小青脚鹬比低干扰区域的表现出更高的警戒性（<0.05）。似然比检验（LRT = 263.82，df = 6，<0.05）进一步支持了这些发现，证实干扰水平对行为变化有显著影响。总体而言，该研究表明，在更高的干扰下，警戒行为的频率和强度都会增加，这可能是以觅食时间和能量摄入为代价的。这凸显了尽量减少人类干扰和保护关键觅食栖息地对于支持小青脚鹬种群在日益以人类为主导的景观中长期生存的重要性。
