Extent and potential impact of hunting on migratory shorebirds in the Asia-Pacific

Gallo-Cajiao, Eduardo; Morrison, Tiffany H.; Woodworth, Bradley K.; Lees, Alexander Charles; Naves, Liliana C.; Yong, Ding; Choi, Chi‐Yeung; Mundkur, Taej; Bird, Jeremy P.; Jain, Anuj; Klokov, Konstantin; Syroechkovskiy, Evgeny E.; Chowdhury, Sayam U.; Fu, Vivian Wing Kan; Watson, James; Fuller, Richard A.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108582

Cited by 43 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The threats faced by migratory landbirds in the EAF are poorly understood compared with those faced by waterbirds, which have been extensively studied in the past decade (Studds et al, 2017;Gallo-Cajiao et al, 2020). Given that most landbirds in the region (Figure 4) are somewhat dependent on forests as stopover and non-breeding habitat, forest loss and degradation are predicted to be major threats.…”

Section: Threats To Migratory Landbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unsustainably high levels of exploitation to supply local, domestic and international demand for wild meat have decimated vertebrate fauna and hunting is now recognized to be a more immediate threat to Southeast Asian vertebrate fauna than deforestation and logging (Tilker et al, 2019). Recent work is beginning to unravel the scale and impact of hunting on wild bird populations in Asia (Kamp et al, 2015;Gallo-Cajiao et al, 2020), particularly for small migratory songbirds (Box 2).…”

Section: Hunting As a Threat To Migratory Landbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies of traditional hunting activities by local people at migration hotspots in China and the Philippines have also warned of the high number and diversity of species taken (McClure, 1974;Alonzo-Pasicolan, 1992;Aquino, 1997;Wang et al, 2000). Commercially produced mistnets, which are now widely available, and improvised fishing nets are extensively used in paddy fields and aquaculture areas for both bird hunting and crop protection (Evans et al, 2000;Gallo-Cajiao et al, 2020). Nets have also been used to reduce bird-strike at airfields (Townshend, 2016b).…”

Section: Hunting As a Threat To Migratory Landbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Amidst increasing efforts to tackle bird hunting, better monitoring of the vast trade in migratory birds across Asian countries is urgently required. There is a need, (1) to analyze whether the levels of illegal (and legal) hunting are sustainable and, (2) to assess if ongoing hunting could lead to further population declines, as already shown for some migratory taxa, such as waders (Gallo-Cajiao et al, 2020). impact of merit release on migratory landbird populations is likely to exceed many millions of swallows, wagtails, reed warblers and other small passerines.…”

Section: Hunting As a Threat To Migratory Landbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The State of Migratory Landbirds in the East Asian Flyway: Distributions, Threats, and Conservation Needs

Yong¹,

Heim

Chowdhury

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With nearly 400 migratory landbird species, the East Asian Flyway is the most diverse of the world’s flyways. This diversity is a consequence of the varied ecological niches provided by biomes ranging from broadleaf forests to arctic tundra and accentuated by complex biogeographic processes. The distribution and migration ecology of East Asian landbirds is still inadequately known, but a recent explosion in the number of studies tracking the migration of raptors, cuckoos, kingfishers and passerines has greatly increased our knowledge about the stopover and wintering ecology of many species, and the migratory routes that link northeast Eurasia and the Asian tropics. Yet the East Asian Flyway also supports the highest number of threatened species among flyways. Strong declines have been detected in buntings (Emberizidae) and other long-distance migrants. While the conservation of migratory landbirds in this region has largely focused on unsustainable hunting, there are other threats, such as habitat loss and increased agro-chemical use driven directly by land cover change and climate-related processes. Important knowledge gaps to be addressed include (1) threats affecting species in different parts of their annual cycle, (2) range-wide population trends, (3) ecological requirements and habitat use during the non-breeding season, and (4) the conservation status of critical wintering sites (including understudied farming landscapes, such as rice fields) and migration bottlenecks along the flyway.

show abstract

Section: Threats To Migratory Landbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hunting As a Threat To Migratory Landbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hunting As a Threat To Migratory Landbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hunting As a Threat To Migratory Landbirdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The State of Migratory Landbirds in the East Asian Flyway: Distributions, Threats, and Conservation Needs

Yong¹,

Heim

Chowdhury

et al. 2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Deteriorating and disappearing habitat, e.g. due to intensive agriculture (Donal et al 2001; Kentie et al 2013; Kentie et al 2018), river regulation (Nebel et al 2008) or mudflat reclamation (Ma et al 2014; Larson 2017), and hunting (Reed et al 2018; Gallo-Cajiao et al 2020) are some of the documented causes. A recent study suggests yet another possible cause of shorebird decline: a global increase in nest predation (Kubelka et al 2018).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Still no evidence for disruption of global patterns of nest predation in shorebirds

Bulla

Vâlcu

Kempenaers

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many shorebird species are rapidly declining (Piersma et al. 2016; Munro 2017; Studds et al. 2017), but it is not always clear why. Deteriorating and disappearing habitat, e.g. due to intensive agriculture (Donal et al. 2001; Kentie et al. 2013; Kentie et al. 2018), river regulation (Nebel et al. 2008) or mudflat reclamation (Ma et al. 2014; Larson 2017), and hunting (Reed et al. 2018; Gallo-Cajiao et al. 2020) are some of the documented causes. A recent study suggests yet another possible cause of shorebird decline: a global increase in nest predation (Kubelka et al. 2018). The authors compiled an impressive dataset on patterns of nest predation in shorebirds and their analyses suggest that global patterns of nest predation have been disrupted by climate change, particularly in the Arctic. They go as far as to conclude that the Arctic might have become an ecological trap (Kubelka et al. 2018). Because these findings might have far-reaching consequences for conservation and related political decisions, we scrutinized the study and concluded that the main conclusions of Kubelka et al. (2018) are invalid (Bulla et al. 2019a). The authors then responded by reaffirming their conclusions (Kubelka et al. 2019b). Here, we evaluate some of Kubelka et al.'s (2019b) responses and show that the main concerns about the original study still hold. Specifically, (1) we reaffirm that Kubelka et al.'s (2018) original findings are confounded by study site. Hence, their conclusions are over-confident because of pseudo-replication. (2) We reiterate that there is no statistical support for the assertion that predation rate has changed in a different way in the Arctic compared to other regions. The relevant test is an interaction between a measure of time (year or period) and a measure of geography (e.g., Arctic vs the rest of the world). The effect of such an interaction is weak, uncertain and statistically non-significant, which undermines Kubelka et al.'s (2018) key conclusion. (3) We further confirm that the suggested general increase in predation rates over time is at best a weak and uncertain trend. The most parsimonious hypothesis for the described results is that the temporal changes in predation rate are an artefact of temporal changes in methodology and data quality. Using only high-quality data, i.e. directly calculated predation rates, reveals no overall temporal trend in predation rate. Below we elaborate in detail on each of these points. We conclude that (i) there is no evidence whatsoever that the pattern in the Arctic is different from that in the rest of the world and (ii) there is no solid evidence for an increase in predation rate over time. While we commend Kubelka et al. for compiling and exploring the data, we posit that the data underlying their study, and perhaps all currently available data, are not sufficient (or of sufficient quality) to test their main hypotheses. We call for standardized and consistent data collection protocols and experimental validation of current methods for estimating nesting success.

show abstract

Habitat use, survival, and migration of a little‐known East Asian endemic, the yellow‐throated bunting Emberiza elegans

Heim

Antonov

Kunz

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Basic information on the ecology of species is key for their conservation. Here we study the ecology of the little‐known yellow‐throated bunting Emberiza elegans based on a multi‐year study on its breeding grounds in the Russian Far East. For the first time in this species, we quantified breeding habitat parameters, calculated sex‐specific apparent survival, and determined individual nonbreeding locations using light‐level geolocation. We found that the habitat around song posts of male yellow‐throated buntings is characterized by tree and shrub layers on richly littered moist ground. Habitat use overlaps with co‐occurring Tristram's Buntings Emberiza tristrami and Black‐faced Buntings E. spodocephala , but territories differ especially in tree cover and litter cover. Based on 4 years of color‐ringing data of 72 individuals, we calculated an apparent survival rate of 36%, with higher survival estimates for male than for female yellow‐throated buntings. We found no effect of carrying a geolocator on survival. We retrieved six geolocators from males. All birds migrated south‐westward during autumn and spent the nonbreeding season at locations in China 700–1700 km away from their breeding sites. At least two individuals spent the boreal winter outside of the known range in northern or central China. Birds left the breeding area between early October and early November and returned between mid‐March and mid‐April. Our data on habitat use, survival rate, and migratory connectivity will help to assess threats to the populations of this enigmatic species, which might include habitat loss due to forest fires on the breeding grounds, and unsustainable harvest for consumption during the nonbreeding season.

show abstract

Extent and potential impact of hunting on migratory shorebirds in the Asia-Pacific

Cited by 43 publications

References 49 publications

The State of Migratory Landbirds in the East Asian Flyway: Distributions, Threats, and Conservation Needs

The State of Migratory Landbirds in the East Asian Flyway: Distributions, Threats, and Conservation Needs

Still no evidence for disruption of global patterns of nest predation in shorebirds

Habitat use, survival, and migration of a little‐known East Asian endemic, the yellow‐throated bunting Emberiza elegans

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About