1. Recent advances in aerial drones offer new insights into the biology, ecology and behaviour of marine wildlife found on or near the ocean’s surface. While opening up new opportunities for enhanced wildlife monitoring, the impacts of drone sampling and how it might influence interpretations of animal behaviour are only just beginning to be understood.
2. The capacity of drones to record bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops spp.) behaviour was investigated, along with how the presence of a small drone at varying altitudes influences dolphin behaviour. Over 3 years and eight locations, 361 drone flights were completed between altitudes of 5 and 60 m above the ocean.
3. Analyses showed that dolphins were increasingly likely to change behaviour with decreasing drone altitude. A positive correlation was also found between time spent hovering above a group of dolphins and the probability of recording a behavioural response. Dolphin group size also influenced the frequency of an observed behavioural change, displaying a positive correlation between behaviour change and group size.
4. Overall, although drones have the potential to impact coastal dolphins when flown at low altitudes, they represent a useful tool for collecting ecological information on coastal dolphins owing to their convenience, low cost and capacity to observe behaviours underwater. To maximize benefits and minimize impacts, this study suggests that drones should be flown 30 m above coastal bottlenose dolphins.

中文翻译：

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宽吻海豚（Tursiops spp。）对小型无人机的反应

1. 空中无人机的最新进展提供了对在海面或其附近发现的海洋野生生物的生物学，生态学和行为的新见解。在为加强野生动植物监测开辟新机遇的同时，无人机采样的影响及其如何影响动物行为的解释才刚刚开始被理解。
2. 研究了无人机记录宽吻海豚（Tursiops spp。）行为的能力，以及不同高度的小型无人机的存在如何影响海豚的行为。在3年的8个地点中，在海拔5到60 m的海拔之间完成了361架无人机飞行。
3. 分析表明，随着无人机高度的降低，海豚改变行为的可能性越来越大。在徘徊在一群海豚上所花费的时间与记录行为反应的可能性之间也发现正相关。海豚群的大小也影响了观察到的行为改变的频率，显示了行为改变和群体大小之间的正相关。
4. 总体而言，尽管无人机在低空飞行时可能会影响沿海海豚，但由于它们的便利性，低成本和观察水下行为的能力，它们是收集沿海海豚生态信息的有用工具。为了最大程度地提高收益并最大程度地减少影响，这项研究建议将无人机悬挂在沿海宽吻海豚上方30 m处。