Density, laying date, breeding success and diet of Black Kites<i>Milvus migrans govinda</i>in the city of Delhi (India)

Kumar, Nishant; Mohan, Dhananjai; Jhala, Yadvendradev V.; Qureshi, Qamar

doi:10.1080/00063657.2013.876972

Cited by 26 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The close connection of urban kites to human activities, and their wide-ranging behaviour, typical of mobile avian predators, which tied them to far away sectors of the city, make them an ideal indicator species that integrates processes occurring at different scales of the urban landscape. In particular, the dependency of an urban top predator on ritual feeding, human culture and religion, which promotes one of the largest predator concentrations in the world (Kumar et al 2014), could be seen as a socio-cultural and ecological uniqueness that connects urban dwellers with nature and has to be attentively preserved, just as an urban green space. In this context, investigation and documentation of the sociohistorical aspects and ecological implications of ritual feeding should be actively promoted.…”

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…occurring almost exclusively in close association with humans in towns and cities (Naoroji 2006). In Delhi, kites breed on both trees and artificial structures (pylons, towers), sometimes forming loose colonies and locally reaching extremely high densities, thanks to the exploitation of human food subsidies facilitated by inefficient refuse disposal and by religious kite-feeding practices (Kumar et al 2014; see details below). These large-scale subsidies may explain Delhi's capacity to host what is probably the largest raptor concentration in the world (Galushin 1971;Kumar et al 2014).…”

Section: Model Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These were plotted randomly within Delhi (1500 km 2 ) so as to cover all its possible urban settings, from semi-natural to extremely built-up sites (details in Kumar et al 2014). This resulted in a sample of 154 nests, each from a different territory, used at least once for breeding between 2013 and 2016.…”

Section: Field Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This resulted in a sample of 154 nests, each from a different territory, used at least once for breeding between 2013 and 2016. Nests were checked every 7-10 days until the chicks were at least 45 days old, in order to estimate the number of young raised to fledging (chicks fledge when about 48 days old; see Kumar et al 2014 for further details of nest checks and surveys).…”

Section: Field Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Habitat selection by an avian top predator in the tropical megacity of Delhi: human activities and socio-religious practices as prey-facilitating tools

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research in urban ecology is growing rapidly in response to the exponential growth of the urban environment. However, few studies have focused on tropical megacities, and on the interplay between predators' habitat selection and human socio-economic aspects, which may mediate their resilience and coexistence with humans. We examined mechanisms of breeding habitat selection by a synanthropic raptor, the Black Kite Milvus migrans, in Delhi (India) where kites mainly subsist on: (1) human refuse and its associated prey-fauna, and (2) ritualised feeding of kites, particularly practised by Muslims. We used mixed effects models to test the effect of urban habitat configuration and human practices on habitat selection, site occupancy and breeding success. Kite habitat decisions, territory occupancy and breeding success were tightly enmeshed with human activities: kites preferred areas with high human density, poor waste management and a road configuration that facilitated better access to resources provided by humans, in particular to Muslim colonies that provided ritual subsidies. Furthermore, kites bred at 'clean' sites with less human refuse only when close to Muslim colonies, suggesting that the proximity to ritual-feeding sites modulated the suitability of other habitats. Rather than a nuisance to avoid, as previously portrayed, humans were a keenly-targeted foraging resource, which tied a predator's distribution to human activities, politics, history, socio-economics and urban planning at multiple spatio-temporal scales. Many synurbic species may exploit humans in more subtle and direct ways than was previously assumed, but uncovering them will require greater integration of human socio-cultural estimates in urban ecological research.

show abstract

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%