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Chambon R, Paillisson JM, Fournier-Sowinski J, Dugravot S. Agricultural habitat use and selection by a sedentary bird over its annual life cycle in a crop-depredation context. MOVEMENT ECOLOGY 2024; 12:26. [PMID: 38553766 PMCID: PMC10981352 DOI: 10.1186/s40462-024-00462-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/01/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Modern agriculture has undoubtedly led to increasing wildlife-human conflicts, notably concerning bird damage in productive and attractive crops during some parts of the annual cycle. This issue requires utmost attention for sedentary birds that may impact agricultural crops at any stage of their annual life cycle. Reducing bird-human conflicts requires a better understanding of the relationship between bird foraging activity and the characteristics of agricultural areas, notably with respect to changes in food-resource availability and crop sensitivity across the year. METHODS We explored how GPS-tagged adult male western jackdaws- sedentary corvids- utilize agricultural areas throughout their annual cycle, in a context of crop depredation. More precisely, we described their daily occurrence distribution and the extent of habitat use and selection consistency with respect to landscape composition across time. RESULTS Jackdaws moved in the close agricultural surroundings of their urban nesting place over the year (< 2.5 km from the nest, on average). Daily occurrence distributions were restricted (< 2.2 km2), relatively centered on the nesting locality (distance between the daily occurrence centroid and the nest < 0.9 km), and rather spatially stable during each annual life-cycle period (overlap range: 63.4-76.1%). Their foraging patterns highlighted that they fed mainly in grasslands all year round, and foraged complementarily and opportunistically in maize (during sowing- coinciding with the first stages of the birds' breeding period) and cereal crops (during harvesting- their post-fledging period). CONCLUSIONS Our findings demonstrate the very limited space use by breeding male jackdaws which foraged preferentially in grasslands. We call for future investigations in other agricultural contexts and also considering non-breeders for extrapolation purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rémi Chambon
- UMR 7208 - BOREA, MNHN, CNRS, UPMC, IRD, UC, UA, Université de Rennes, Rennes, France.
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Abou Zeid F, Morelli F, Ibáñez-Álamo JD, Díaz M, Reif J, Jokimäki J, Suhonen J, Kaisanlahti-Jokimäki ML, Markó G, Bussière R, Mägi M, Tryjanowski P, Kominos T, Galanaki A, Bukas N, Pruscini F, Jerzak L, Ciebiera O, Benedetti Y. Spatial Overlap and Habitat Selection of Corvid Species in European Cities. Animals (Basel) 2023; 13:ani13071192. [PMID: 37048448 PMCID: PMC10093487 DOI: 10.3390/ani13071192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding habitat and spatial overlap in sympatric species of urban areas would aid in predicting species and community modifications in response to global change. Habitat overlap has been widely investigated for specialist species but neglected for generalists living in urban settings. Many corvid species are generalists and are adapted to urban areas. This work aimed to determine the urban habitat requirements and spatial overlap of five corvid species in sixteen European cities during the breeding season. All five studied corvid species had high overlap in their habitat selection while still having particular tendencies. We found three species, the Carrion/Hooded Crow, Rook, and Eurasian Magpie, selected open habitats. The Western Jackdaw avoided areas with bare soil cover, and the Eurasian Jay chose more forested areas. The species with similar habitat selection also had congruent spatial distributions. Our results indicate that although the corvids had some tendencies regarding habitat selection, as generalists, they still tolerated a wide range of urban habitats, which resulted in high overlap in their habitat niches and spatial distributions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Farah Abou Zeid
- Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Prague, Czech Republic; (F.M.); (Y.B.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Federico Morelli
- Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Prague, Czech Republic; (F.M.); (Y.B.)
- Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Zielona Góra, Prof. Z. Szafrana St. 1, 65-516 Zielona Góra, Poland; (L.J.); (O.C.)
| | | | - Mario Díaz
- Department of Biogeography and Global Change, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (BGC-MNCN-CSIC), 28006 Madrid, Spain;
| | - Jiří Reif
- Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Benatska 2, 128 01 Praha, Czech Republic;
- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Palacky University in Olomouc, 17. Listopadu 50, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic
| | - Jukka Jokimäki
- Nature Inventory and EIA-Services, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, P.O. Box 122, 96101 Rovaniemi, Finland; (J.J.); (M.-L.K.-J.)
| | - Jukka Suhonen
- Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland;
| | - Marja-Liisa Kaisanlahti-Jokimäki
- Nature Inventory and EIA-Services, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, P.O. Box 122, 96101 Rovaniemi, Finland; (J.J.); (M.-L.K.-J.)
| | - Gábor Markó
- Department of Plant Pathology, Institute of Plant Protection, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Ménesi út 44, 1118 Budapest, Hungary;
| | | | - Marko Mägi
- Department of Zoology, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 50409 Tartu, Estonia;
| | - Piotr Tryjanowski
- Institute of Zoology, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 71C, 60-625 Poznań, Poland;
| | - Theodoros Kominos
- Department of Zoology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; (T.K.); (A.G.)
| | - Antonia Galanaki
- Department of Zoology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; (T.K.); (A.G.)
| | - Nikos Bukas
- Plegadis, Riga Feraiou 6A, 45444 Ioannina, Greece;
| | | | - Leszek Jerzak
- Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Zielona Góra, Prof. Z. Szafrana St. 1, 65-516 Zielona Góra, Poland; (L.J.); (O.C.)
| | - Olaf Ciebiera
- Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Zielona Góra, Prof. Z. Szafrana St. 1, 65-516 Zielona Góra, Poland; (L.J.); (O.C.)
| | - Yanina Benedetti
- Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Prague, Czech Republic; (F.M.); (Y.B.)
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Bravo C, Sarasa M, Bretagnolle V, Pays O. Detectability and predator strategy affect egg depredation rates: Implications for mitigating nest depredation in farmlands. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 829:154558. [PMID: 35302039 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154558] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 02/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/10/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Predation is a major evolutionary force in animal ecology. Mechanisms by which prey coloration provides camouflage has been widely studied. However, predator response to prey camouflage and concealment has received less attention. Understanding vegetation structure effect on depredation success could help managers design strategies to mitigate the depredation of managed species (e.g., threatened or hunted). We aimed to investigate the relationship between depredation rate, nest camouflage and concealment in ground-nesting birds of farmlands, and their predators. We set up an experiment of 2576 artificial ground nests to assess the role of egg coloration (white, light green, and dark green), egg size (small, medium, and large), and vegetation structure (vegetation height and land use) in nest survival rates. We also explored the role of predator searching strategies by analysing clumped depredation and multiple depredation events. Of the nests, 34.0% were depredated, with corvids as the predators 78.5% of the time. Corvid depredation decreased by 40-60% in grasslands and spring crops above a vegetation height of 30 cm. In contrast, vegetation height and land use may be of far less importance in avoiding depredation by other predators. The probability of depredation was spatially clumped, suggesting that predators increase search effort in areas where a nest was previously encountered. Neighboring depredation and depredation repetition were more frequent in corvids than in other predators. Our study indicates that nests in vegetation higher than 30 cm had a drastic reduction in depredation rates by corvids. Management of vegetation structure is a key tool to mitigate depredation risk, and improving the availability of alternative food resources may be a complementary tool.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolina Bravo
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372, CNRS and La Rochelle Université, F-79360 Beauvoir-sur-Niort, France; Université d'Angers, BiodivAG, 2 Bd Lavoisier, 49045 Angers Cedex 01, France.
| | - Mathieu Sarasa
- BEOPS, 1 Esplanade Compans Caffarelli, 31000 Toulouse, France; Fédération Nationale des Chasseurs, 92136 Issy-les-Moulineaux Cedex, France
| | - Vincent Bretagnolle
- Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372, CNRS and La Rochelle Université, F-79360 Beauvoir-sur-Niort, France; LTSER "Zone Atelier Plaine & Val de Sèvre", CNRS, 79360 Villiers-en-Bois, France
| | - Olivier Pays
- Université d'Angers, BiodivAG, 2 Bd Lavoisier, 49045 Angers Cedex 01, France; REHABS International Research Laboratory, CNRS-Université Lyon 1-Nelson Mandela University, George Campus, Madiba drive, 6531 George, South Africa
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Thomsen B, Cousins T, Copeland K, Thomsen J, Coose S, Mensah A, Fennell SR, Deshwal A, Guzman J, Copeland S, Nickerson D, Duggan M, Schneider A, Taylor M, Hernandez Saez A, Gosler A. Posthumanist Pluralities: Advocating for nonhuman species’ rights, agency, and welfare in ecosystem governance. ADV ECOL RES 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.aecr.2022.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Gil-Fernández M, Harcourt R, Towerton A, Newsome T, Milner HA, Sriram S, Gray N, Escobar-Lasso S, González-Cardoso VH, Carthey A. The canid pest ejector challenge: controlling urban foxes while keeping domestic dogs safe. WILDLIFE RESEARCH 2021. [DOI: 10.1071/wr20078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
ContextIt is widely recognised that red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are abundant within urban areas; however, it is difficult to apply lethal control measures using poison baits in cities because of concerns about the safety of domestic pets, particularly dogs (Canis familiaris).
AimsWe tested canid pest ejectors (CPEs) as a potential method of fox control by measuring visitation and activation behaviour of foxes and other wildlife while assessing non-target risk to domestic dogs.
MethodsWe compared eight urban and eight peri-urban sites in Sydney, with half of the sites having restricted access for domestic dogs. We allocated five camera traps and ejectors per site. Through generalised linear mixed models, we compared the probability of ejector activation between foxes and dogs. We also assessed the relationship between dog visitation and distance to habitation and dog restrictions as measures of dog safety.
Key resultsBoth species of canids were equally likely to pull the ejector (P=0.26). As expected, dog visitation was significantly lower in sites with dog restrictions (P<0.001). However, it was not related to distance from habitation. Only two non-canid species were recorded pulling the ejector, suggesting high target-specificity for canids.
ConclusionsIn sites with dog restrictions, the risk of dog casualties from CPEs is minimal. However, distance from habitation does not increase dog safety, at least within 250m. The ejector is highly specific for canids.
ImplicationsWe provide specific recommendations for the design of a potential fox control program using CPEs in urban and peri-urban areas. The ejector may be a safe method for fox control in cities when deployed at places without domestic dogs.
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Giraudoux P, Levret A, Afonso E, Coeurdassier M, Couval G. Numerical response of predators to large variations of grassland vole abundance and long-term community changes. Ecol Evol 2020; 10:14221-14246. [PMID: 33391712 PMCID: PMC7771176 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Revised: 09/23/2020] [Accepted: 10/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Voles can reach high densities with multiannual population fluctuations of large amplitude, and they are at the base of predator communities in Northern Eurasia and Northern America. This status places them at the heart of management conflicts wherein crop protection and health concerns are often raised against conservation issues. Here, a 20-year survey describes the effects of large variations in grassland vole populations on the densities and the daily theoretical food intakes (TFI) of vole predators based on roadside counts. Our results show how the predator community responded to prey variations of large amplitude and how it reorganized with the increase in a dominant predator, here the red fox, which likely negatively impacted hare, European wildcat, and domestic cat populations. This population increase did not lead to an increase in the average number of predators present in the study area, suggesting compensations among resident species due to intraguild predation or competition. Large variations in vole predator number could be clearly attributed to the temporary increase in the populations of mobile birds of prey in response to grassland vole outbreaks. Our study provides empirical support for more timely and better focused actions in wildlife management and vole population control, and it supports an evidence-based and constructive dialogue about management targets and options between all stakeholders of such socio-ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick Giraudoux
- Chrono‐EnvironnementUniversité de Bourgogne Franche‐Comté/CNRS usc INRABesançon CedexFrance
| | | | - Eve Afonso
- Chrono‐EnvironnementUniversité de Bourgogne Franche‐Comté/CNRS usc INRABesançon CedexFrance
| | - Michael Coeurdassier
- Chrono‐EnvironnementUniversité de Bourgogne Franche‐Comté/CNRS usc INRABesançon CedexFrance
| | - Geoffroy Couval
- Chrono‐EnvironnementUniversité de Bourgogne Franche‐Comté/CNRS usc INRABesançon CedexFrance
- FREDON Bourgogne Franche‐ComtéEcole‐ValentinFrance
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