By XAVIER SMERDON
A WESTERN suburbs scientist has made a surprising discovery that people travelling on foot could be more disturbing to wildlife than a busload of sightseers.
Dr Patrick-Jean Guay from Victoria University studied the response of nearly 40 waterbird species to visits into their habitat by walkers, cyclists, cars and buses.
The research was funded by Melbourne Water and performed at the Western Treatment Plant in Werribee.
“We found that across species motor vehicles always evoked shorter flight-initiated distances, meaning that motor vehicles were less disturbing to the birds than groups of walkers and even single walkers,” Dr Guay said.
Dr Guay said disruption of the normal activity of wildlife by humans was generally regarded as a conservation problem, yet it was widely assumed that pedestrians were less disruptive.
He said the implication was that protecting wildlife from human disturbance in sensitive areas may actually be better achieved by promoting access to those in cars and minibuses, rather than pedestrians.
“Not only have motor vehicles been shown to disturb the wildlife less but they are also capable of carrying more people in one visit, potentially reducing the overall number of incursions into the habitat,” he said.
“Organised ecotourism where a busload of tourists is driven through conservation areas may be preferable to that same number of people having free range to walk through that area.”
The research could have major implications for tourism and the way its impact is viewed in parts of Victoria and Australia.
