Impact of vandalism on avian nest-box studies: challenges and strategies for research and conservation

Human interaction with nature often exhibits negative aspects, such as vandalism, which involves the destruction of or damage to property. Unfortunately, very little is known about the extent, causes, and frequency of this phenomenon. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate a scale of vandalism in studies using nest-boxes in Poland. Data from published papers (n = 256) indicated that researchers are aware of the devastation and destruction of nest-boxes, but often lacking detailed reports. We further validated this data through emails or phone calls to the authors. Surprisingly, only 14 (5.5%) papers mentioned vandalism, and during interviews, we found that vandalism occurred in 51.7% of studies. In response to vandalism, researchers have taken measures to reduce the scale of damages, such as hanging boxes far from paths and roads, placing them above 3 m from the ground, or, more recently, using security cameras. Although vandalism was quite common, its scale was rather marginal, with some local exceptions. For a better understanding of this phenomenon, we suggest including more detailed information on vandalism in future papers, which could aid in the interpretation of scientific data, as well as in nature conservation.