# Mallard reactions to simulated and real vehicle approaches
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These data describe the reactions of mallards to simulated (RDuckVideo) and real (RDuckField) vehicle approaches.


## Description of the data and file structure

Description of Metrics used in associated data files:

Metadata for Mallard .csv Files 

 

Video Data 

Date: self-explanatory 

Group: A numerical value for the day that each duck was run.  

Approach: The order in which the ducks were run (1-97; one duck disqualified) 

Duck: Each duck’s individual identifier 

Weight: Duck’s body weight (grams) 

Sex: self-explanatory 

Light: The lighting conditions each duck was exposed to (either nighttime or daytime) 

Flight: Whether or not the duck initiated a flight response (Yes/No) 

Flight_Bin: A binary transformation of the previous variable: Yes = 1, No = 0 

TTC: The time to collision (seconds) at the time of flight initiation 

Success_Bin: Binary indicator for success, based on whether a duck’s TTC value was greater than 1.0 second. Success/Surviving Duck = 1, Failure/Dead Duck = 0 

FID: Duck’s distance from the vehicle at the time of flight initiation (meters) 

 

Field Data (Not described above) 

Date_Num: A numerical value for the day that each duck was run. 

Approach: The order in which ducks were run (separated by Day/Night; 1-48 for each lighting treatment) 

Temp: Air temperature (˚C) 

Wind_Dir: Wind direction in degrees. Precision to secondary-intercardinal direction. 

Wind_kmh: Wind speed (kilometers per hour) 

VP_Dist: Distance (meters) to the center of the path of the vehicle’s travel at the time of flight initiation, or collision if no flight response. Precision to the half-meter.  

Cage_Dist: Distance (meters) to the opening of the cage ducks were released from at the time of flight initiation, or collision if no flight response. Precision to the half-meter.  

Brake: Whether or not a bird was braked for (Yes/No). Birds were braked for if they remained in the path of the vehicle when the vehicle was 10m away (40kph) or 15m away (60 kph).  

Brake_Type: Denotes whether flight began pre-braking (Type 1), post-braking (Type 2), or no flight was initiated (Type 3). 

Brake_Bin: A binary representing whether braking occurred prior to the duck’s flight (i.e. braking could have affected the response. Ducks which were not braked for, and Type 1 ducks = 0, Type 2 & Type 3 ducks = 1.  

Success (3m): Whether a duck would have survived an encounter, with a TTC of 1.0 second as an indicator (Yes/No) 

Success_Bin_TTC: Binary indicator for success, based on whether a duck’s TTC value was greater than 1.0 second. Success/Surviving Duck = 1, Failure/Dead Duck = 0 

Live_Duck: A binary variable indicating whether a duck would have been struck by the vehicle (0) or avoided a collision (1) if the vehicle had not braked (remained at its experimental speed) and remained on its original path of travel (+/- 1 m from road center) 

Eye_Dir: The eye which the duck is using to look at the vehicle at a) the initiation of its flight for individuals with flight responses or b) the time of theoretical collision in ducks without flight responses 

M_o_Flight: A duck’s manner of flight. (Flight, Run to Flight, Run, with a few exceptions harder to categorize)