A Community-Level Approach to Species Conservation: A Case Study of Falco naumanni in Southern Italy

Abstract

The conservation of threatened species is prevalently oriented towards two management strategies, i.e., habitat-level and species-level approaches. The former is focused on improving the conditions of the habitat of a certain species, whereas the latter is aimed at directly strengthening the species of interest. In this work, we adopted a different solution based on a community-level approach. Firstly, we identified the species (predators, competitors, prey) that interact with the species of interest (the lesser kestrel, Falco naumanni) in Southern Italy and mapped all of the ecological interactions among these species. Secondly, we built a simulation framework of the entire ecological network of the lesser kestrel. Thirdly, we simulated different management strategies that could increase the lesser kestrel population stock by targeting the species that interact with it. We found that the lesser kestrel in Southern Italy can be effectively protected by targeting the species interacting with the lesser kestrel, and that natural changes in the abundance of the interacting species could be used to pro-actively predict the dynamics of the lesser kestrel population. Our study demonstrates that a community-level approach to species conservation is highly appropriate on a local scale. Our methodological framework, based on qualitative modeling and what-if scenarios, can be applied in the absence of quantitative estimations of population stocks and interaction strengths.

Space–Time Patterns of Nest Site and Nesting Area Selection by the Italian Population of European Rollers: A 3-Year Study of a Farmland Bird Species

“…The Alta Murgia national park (68,565 hectares; Apulia region, Southern Italy; Figure S3) was the only important protected area in Italy to host a fair amount of selected nest sites, although the density of such nest locations was not sufficient to make this park a further nesting hotspot for this species. The reason is that the Alta Murgia national park is the only national park in Italy where agricultural, forest, and semi-natural areas (in particular, pseudo-steppes) co-occur, thus providing suitable habitat for many farmland bird species [24][25][26].…”

Optimized Monitoring and Conservation of Farmland Bird Species through Bayesian Modelling: The Montagu’s Harrier Circus pygargus Population in Central Italy

“…Results from the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme for 39 common farmland birds monitored between 1980 and 2017 showed that this bird group is undergoing the steepest population declines (PECBMS: http://pecbms.info/europeanwild-bird-indicators-2020-update; accessed on 8 January 2023). Several raptors are among the most threatened species because of their frequent or exclusive use of arable lands and cultivated areas for breeding and foraging, e.g., the lesser kestrel Falco naumanni [16][17][18] and the red-footed falcon Falco vespertinus [19][20][21].…”

Conservation and Ecology of Raptors: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…The last study of this series [10] investigated the activity patterns of goshawks and their role as an indicator of bird abundance. One of the studies [11] in this Special Issue aimed to determine how changes (caused by external agents or by endogenous modifications) to the species interacting with the lesser kestrel could induce changes (both positive and negative) to its population stock. The authors used a qualitative modelling approach to identify the species (predators, competitors, prey) that interacted with the species of interest (the lesser kestrel) in southern Italy, mapped all of the ecological interactions among these species, and simulated different management strategies that could increase kestrel population stock by targeting the species that interacted with it.…”