Drones disturb wildlife: new policies suggested

There are new calls for policies on personal drones are being called for following an incident at a provincial park.

Kevin Snair is the supervisor of park interpretive services at Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park in the east coast province of New Brunswick.

He said the park had not opened for the day when he heard something that startled him and also a nesting peregrine falcon on the cliff-face at Big Cove

“All of a sudden, I heard this almost like a hive of bees coming and I recognized it right away as a drone in the park. And it’s buzzing over Big Cove look-off and the adult peregrine is concerned, you can tell it is freaked out by it,” Snair said.

Added stresses on wildlife can be very harmful to the parents and result in harm to babies, if for example the parents are scared off.  In this case the mother peregrine was very anxious and very agitated but stayed.

Snair said he couldn’t see who was controlling the drone.

Drones are allowed in Hopewell Park at present, and there are more flying around the amazing natural features of the park.

Quoted by CBC news, he said”This is all a brand new thing and parks all over the world are experiencing the same issue. How do we draw the line with this new technology?”

At present there is no “drone policy” but added that any new guidelines should impose no-fly zones around the Big Cove look-off when the peregrines are nesting and in the North Beach area when the semipalmated sandpipers are there in the summer.

In other cases, common sense should apply.

There are currently two babies at the Cliffside nest. There were three, but officials suspect one baby got too adventurous and fell to its death off the cliff.

Other policies regarding drones include no fly zones near airports and it is illegal to hunt using drones to spot or flush out game.

Hopewell Rocks Facebook with video of peregrine and chicks

with files from CBC