Birders also tend to be a lot more "adventurous" in the places they go
- most dog owners run their dogs in the local park which is usually
home to other activities as well - Masked Lapwings have raised young
in my local dog-walking park but that is probably pretty rare.
Birders however go bashing through all sorts of terrain looking for
birds - I have rarely seen an accompanied dog when out doing "serious"
birding (although I have seen plenty in National Parks). I suspect
that the average birder probably disturbs more birds than the average
dog walker - although there are far more dog walkers so who knows how
the equation is balanced?
On 07/09/2007, Peter Shute <> wrote:
> After reading the full report emailed to me by Peter Kyne (thanks), it's
> interesting to note that they concluded that humans walking without dogs
> "also induced some disturbance but typically less than half that induced
> by dogs". Sounds like a good justification for keeping *everyone* out
> of at least some areas.
>
> I wonder how much disturbance a birder causes compared to the walkers
> they measured results for. Birder tend to walk slower, poke around,
> etc. I don't know if that would cause more disturbance, or less.
>
> It's also interesting to read all the predictable "yeah, but ..."
> comments from dog owners below the online article.
>
> Peter Shute
>
> wrote on Wednesday, 5 September 2007
> 5:47 PM:
>
> > The following item illustrates why dogs shouldn't be taken into
> > sensitive environments, even on a lead.
> >
> > Regards, Laurie.
> >
> > http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2388323.ece
> >
> > How man's best friend becomes birds' worst enemy on that walk
> > Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter September 5, 2007
> >
> > Walkies, the seemingly innocuous duty of exercising the dog, has been
> > identified as a huge threat to wildlife.
> > While it is held to be good for the health of owners by ensuring a
> > daily dose of exercise, dog-walking can spell disaster for
> > birds. Numbers of birds in areas where people took their dogs
> > for a walk were
> > found to plummet by more than 40 per cent, according to a scientific
> > study. Researchers also found that the range of bird species in
> > dog-walking areas slumped by 35 per cent, especially among the
> > easy-to-disturb ground-nesting varieties.
> www.birding-aus.org
> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to:
>
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
