Читать книгу Practical Field Ecology - C. Philip Wheater - Страница 22

Studies on animals may involve monitoring the behaviour of individuals, even if this is not the primary purpose of the study. Knowing whether rabbits are feeding, being vigilant for predators, etc. may be useful if numbers are being counted in particular sites. Of course, other research projects will focus primarily on animal behaviour. Such behavioural studies may involve the observation of a number of individual animals in a variety of settings, or the interactions that animals have with others of the same, and/or different, species. Activity levels and habitat/resource utilisation may change with time of day and season according to changes in the weather. Assessing the time that individuals devote to different behaviours (time budgets) can help to identify such changes. It is essential that the location and methods used by the observer do not influence the behaviours being monitored. Working too close to large mammals with young may mean that the major behaviour monitored is vigilance directed against the observer – and may be dangerous for the researcher. Behavioural changes may occur even with subtle changes to the environment, such as the use of head torches. The emitted wavelength of white light attracts flying insects like moths, but changing the torch to red light solves the problem. What this does show is that all actions in the field, however apparently trivial, need careful consideration before fieldwork begins.