Bears Get Stressed Out by Drones, Researchers at University of Minnesota say.
Led by Mark Ditmer, researches have attempted to answer the question found in the study published by Current Biology, which notes that the rising usage of drones we are experiencing can cause irreversible stress on wildlife.
One might say that this news isn’t bearable at all – pun intended.
To be absolutely clear from the get-go, this isn’t an in-depth research. Mark Ditmer, along with his group, frolicked around with a rather small quadcopter around four American black bears. All of the bears were equipped with a heart tracker, and a GPS tracking collar.
Mark and his crew flew-over them 17 times, and only once a bear slightly changed his behavior when he acknowledged the drone’s presence.
But on every occasion, researchers noted a spike in heart rate – one case noted an increase to 123 bpm, and another high bpm for a bear that was supposed to hibernate.
Bears returned to their usual mood after Mark and his drone left. The group didn’t notice any out of the ordinary behavioral change, but they did observe physiological responses.
However, the study didn’t answer the question aimed by the Current Biology study. Instead, they noted that more research should be done on how much of an impact do UAV flights have on wildlife, given the huge surge of users across the world that adopt this new kind of hobby.
The fact that wildlife is stressed-out when encountering low-altitude flights by helicopters, or any other aircraft is already known in the science community, but not regarding drones.
In 2014, paired with results Mark and his team brought-up, the US National Park Service banned the use of UAVs withing the park’s territory, but there are still some drone enthusiasts that don’t abide be these rules.
Park Rangers note that because bears get stressed out by drones, they could react in unforeseen ways, even trying to hunt, and attack the UAV. Considering that quadcopters have an average range of 330 feet, this could be incredibly dangerous to people visiting the park.
Bears are borderline awesome, and they are borderline dangerous. Nobody wants to upset an already pissed-off 800 pound bloodthirsty bear.
