Bad News for Bears: Drones Stress Them Out

[LuvMyTJ]

Wildlife researchers and conservationists seem to find a new use for unmanned aerial vehicles every day.

Remote-controlled drones are already patrolling the African bush for elephant and rhino poachers, counting dolphins off California’s coast, keeping tabs on Mexico’s sea turtles, and giving wildlife enthusiasts a whole new perspective on their favorite animals.

But with all of the buzz around drones, there’s been little research on whether there’s a negative impact to flying an aircraft into an animal’s natural habitat.

For black bears, drones can be stressful—even if they don’t show it.

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Bad News for Bears: Drones Stress Them Out

 

[snerd]

And then the stupid statement in the comments......................

Janet Robinson ·
Boca Raton, Florida
Duh. Really. Drones are evil and should be outlawed.

Now there was a convincing argument for why drones are evil. Oh, wait........................

 

[750r]

I wounder how stressful it was being knocked out strapped with a GPS and heart Monitor ? Then buzzing them with UAV's all in the name of Science . How about just leave them alone altogether ?

 

[snerd]

The bears are bothered. We should terminate the entire drone industry. I'm sure choppers and airplanes will bother them too, so they'll both have to go, too. Humans also bother bears...............

 

[shipdriver]

This came out a while ago. My main question was and is, like with snerd: do drones stress out bears more than helicopters, humans on the ground, motor vehicles or airplanes flying low? I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but despite that actually being the most important question, it was not asked by the people doing the "study". The reality is, if you can't use drones for field research, then no field research is acceptable, because all other means of conducting field research have larger environmental impacts.