Title
No evidence that cameras affect shorebird nest survival on the coastal plain of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, AK
Author(s)
McGuire, R.L.;Latty, C.;Brown, S.;Shulte, S.;Hoepfner, S.
Published
2022
Publisher
Ibis
Abstract
Cameras are important tools used to determine nest fate, identify predators, and evaluate behaviour, however, they may impact the parameters they are used to measure, thereby biasing results. We evaluated the impact of cameras ~10 m from the nest on shorebird nest survival at the Canning River Delta, Alaska, 2017 – 2018 (Ncontrol = 122, Ncamera = 109) using a much larger sample size than in previous studies conducted in the Arctic and random assignments at nest discovery. We found no effect of camera presence at the nest on daily nest survival (model averaged DSR 85% CI; control: 0.971 – 0.983, camera: 0.969 – 0.982). We suggest nest survival studies of tundra-nesting birds consider the use of cameras to minimize researcher disturbance, increase the accuracy of fate assignments, and broaden the ecological data collected (e.g., incubation behaviour, predator identification, and non-anthropogenic non-predation disruption such as by caribou).
Keywords
Arctic; daily nest survival; nest cameras; shorebird
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