Predator-Resembling Aversive Conditioning for Managing Habituated Wildlife

Abstract

Wildlife habituation near urban centers can disrupt natural ecological processes, destroy habitat, and threaten public safety. Consequently, management of habituated animals is typically invasive and often includes translocation of these animals to remote areas and sometimes even their destruction. Techniques to prevent or reverse habituation and other forms of in situ management are necessary to balance ecological and social requirements, but they have received very little experimental attention to date. This study compared the efficacy of two aversive conditioning treatments that used either humans or dogs to create sequences resembling chases by predators, which, along with a control category, were repeatedly and individually applied to 24 moderately habituated, radio-collared elk in Banff National Park during the winter of 2001-2002. Three response variables were measured before and after treatment. Relative to untreated animals, the distance at which elk fled from approaching humans, i.e., the flight response distance, increased following both human and dog treatments, but there was no difference between the two treatments. The proportion of time spent in vigilance postures decreased for all treatment groups, without differences among groups, suggesting that this behavior responded mainly to seasonal effects. The average distance between elk locations and the town boundary, measured once daily by telemetry, significantly increased for human-conditioned elk. One of the co-variates we measured, wolf activity, exerted counteracting effects on conditioning effects; flight response distances and proximity to the town site were both lower when wolf activity was high. This research demonstrates that it is possible to temporarily modify aspects of the behavior of moderately habituated elk using aversive conditioning, suggests a method for reducing habituation in the first place, and provides a solution for Banff and other jurisdictions to manage hyperabundant and habituated urban wildlife.

Avoidance of roads and selection for recent cutovers by threatened caribou: fitness-rewarding or maladaptive behaviour?

“…The most adaptive response of prey to human activities and infrastructure may depend on whether top-down or bottom-up forces determine population size, and on the relative impact that humans have on different trophic levels. For example, selection for human-disturbed sites of a top-down controlled prey species might result in fitness gains if anthropogenic disturbances have stronger consequences on its predators than on its food supply [10]. Given that human infringement on wildlife habitat is increasing rapidly and extensively, some habitat selection tactics may become more adaptive following anthropogenic disturbance, while previously rewarding decisions may become maladaptive [11,12].…”

Managing Large Herbivores in Protected Areas

“…Banff and Waterton NP, in Canada, has used trained dogs, with a professional dog-handler, to conduct predatorresembling aversive conditioning of habituated deer and elk [38]. For comparison purposes, Banff also conducts a very limited annual cull of the elk, which requires two trained staff instead of one dog handler, but accomplishes the desired task in a matter of hours, compared to the few weeks of the calving season over which aversive conditioning is conducted.…”

“…Aggressive charges often take place during the mating season when males are particularly aggressive and territorial, but just as often during calving seasons when mothers fiercely defend their young [37]. In Banff NP, most aggressive incidents by elk are done by females defending their calves during the spring calving season [38]. Even small herbivores can become dangerous too, such as the increasing problem of white-tailed deer attacks at the Southern University, USA, during deer fawning season [39].…”

“…Elephants and ungulates in many African game parks have been dispersed or even attracted closer to tourist routes by using artificial water holes [103]. Aversive conditioning has been used to increase elk fear of humans, and thus disperse them from habitats surrounding human settlements [38,104], and even "encouraged" some elk to resume seasonal migratory behaviour [105].…”

Responses of mountain goats to heliskiing activity: Movements and resource selection.

“…Conversely, the opposite effect has also been shown, wherein animals will eventually acclimatize to disturbance that is predictable (i.e., habituation), remaining in areas o f high activity, and in some instances, even attracted to these areas as they can provide protection from predators that may be more wary (Isbell and Young 1993, Kloppers et al 2005, Stankowich 2008 Where mountain goats have been observed to avoid areas o f disturbance, the avoidance has often been associated with a focal source disturbance, such as a drilling pad (Foster and Rahs 1983) or specific logging block on the landscape (Gordon and Wilson 2004). Focal-point disturbances may be more easily recognized on the landscape, and therefore avoided, than a more dynamic, unpredictable and dispersed form o f disturbance, such as heliskiing.…”