An evaluation of the level of human disturbance to waterbirds at Mole National Park in Ghana

Anthropogenic activities including recreation were known to cause disturbances to waterbirds in their natural habitat. The Mole National Park, which is considered the largest and oldest in Ghana, attracted significant number of tourists over the years, and consequently induced pressures and disturbances to waterbirds. Thus, there is a need to study the human-wildlife interactions and conflicts. This study established the species list of waterbirds at Mole between August 2015 and February 2016, assessed the nature and levels of human disturbance to the birds and determined the alert and flight initiation distances of selected species. A total of 29 waterbird species were recorded of which White-faced Whistling Duck was the most abundant. At a flush rate of 2.5 per hour with each flush lasting 34.0 s, waterbirds at the park spend 85.0 s/h as a result of flushing of which only 17.6 s/h was attributed to human disturbance. Majority of the flushes (70.5%) were caused by indeterminate factors but the potential adverse impact of human induced flushing and the need to minimize or prevent increased rates in the park was indicated by birds perceiving disturbance from tourist/staff to be of the same risk as predation. It was recommended that a setback distance based on the longest Alert Distance (120.8 +/- 31.9 m) and Flight Initiation Distance (32.7 +/- 23.8 m), both of which were recorded for the Grey Heron, should be considered in the management of the park's wetlands.