Habitat selection by Black kite breeders and floaters: Implications for conservation management of raptor floaters

Abstract

a b s t r a c tPreserving large predators is important but challenging because these species are typically wide-ranging, select multiple habitats at different scales and often present spatial or habitat separation between the breeder and floater sectors of a population. In addition, most of our knowledge on raptor floaters' habitat requirements comes from large solitary species, whose floaters often occupy temporary settlement areas spatially separate from breeding locations. Here, we examine space and habitat use by a loosely colonial, wetland-dependent raptor, the Black kite ( Milvus migrans ), in a population where floaters co-exist with territory holders, enabling a direct comparison of their habitat preferences. The study was conducted in Doñana National Park (South-Western Spain), a seasonally drying marshland currently surrounded by intensive agriculture and rice-fields. Intensive radio-tracking revealed that breeders and floaters selected and avoided the same habitats despite a radical, four-to-eight fold difference in their homerange dimensions: all kites over-selected open habitats suitable for their aerial foraging modes and avoided woodland and farmland. These results suggest a continuum of raptor population structures ranging from solitary species whose floaters select different habitats than breeders and are concentrated in spatially separate settlement areas, to colonial and semi-social species whose floaters fully coexist with breeders with shared habitat preferences. Both extremes of this continuum will pose challenges for conservation management. In solitary species, special conservation efforts may be required to identify and manage temporary settlement areas, while in gregarious species, the larger ranges of floaters may expose them to different threats than breeders, whose occurrence and consequences may be subtle to identify..

Using Patch Focals to Study Unhabituated Dry-Habitat Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) and Sympatric Fauna at Issa, Ugalla, Tanzania

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

“…if a plot contained X nests, we plotted X random locations within its 5 km radial area). The radius of 5 km was chosen because floating, pre-breeding kites frequently prospect 7-10 km wide areas when choosing where to settle to breed (Tanferna et al 2013;authors' unpubl. GPS-data).…”

Floater interference reflects territory quality in the Spanish Imperial Eagle Aquila adalberti: a test of a density‐dependent mechanism

“…, Tanferna et al . ). In a low‐density population, individuals entering the breeding population select optimal territories of high quality.…”

“…As the frequency of intrusions and interference increases, individuals show reduced productivity (Lack 1966, Fretwell & Lucas 1970, Dhondt & Schillemans 1983, Fernandez et al 1998, Newton 1998, Sillett et al 2004). Other authors, however, have proposed that density-dependent depression in mean productivity is the result of habitat heterogeneity (Korpimaki 1988, Kadmon 1993, Ferrer & Donazar 1996, Newton 1998, Ferrer & Bisson 2003, Sergio & Newton 2003, Casado et al 2008, Tanferna et al 2013). In a low-density population, individuals entering the breeding population select optimal territories of high quality.…”