Outdoor recreation causes effective habitat reduction in Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus: a major threat for geographically restricted populations

Coppes, Joy; Ehrlacher, Judith; Thiel, Dominik; Suchant, Rudi; Braunisch, Veronika

doi:10.17011/conference/eccb2018/107195

Cited by 20 publications

(43 citation statements)

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“…The Black Forest capercaillie population is isolated from other populations in central Europe (Segelbacher et al., ) and highly fragmented (Braunisch, Segelbacher, & Hirzel, ; Coppes et al., ). Population size and distribution have been continuously decreasing over the last 30 years (Coppes et al., ), with the cause considered to be multifactorial, including habitat deterioration (Suchant & Braunisch, ), habitat fragmentation (Braunisch et al., ), predator abundance (Kämmerle et al., ), disturbance through human recreation (Coppes et al., ) as well as climate change (Braunisch et al., ; Huntley, Green, Collingham, & Willis, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, we considered the environmental conditions within a 400 m radius, which is equivalent to an area of 50 ha (i.e. the size of a small winter home range of capercaillie in the Black Forest; Coppes et al., ). The predictors were prepared using ArcGIS 10.4 (ESRI 2014).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The data on recreational infrastructure were adopted from the official Tourism and Recreation Information System of Baden‐Württemberg (TFIS) and complemented with data of snowshoe trails, back‐country skiing tours or winter hiking trails provided by specific user groups on the Internet (http://www.outdooractive.de, http://www.gpsies.com, http://www.bergfex.de). Since capercaillie are most likely not affected by recreation activities at distances over 400 m (Coppes et al., ; Thiel et al., ), we truncated the distance to recreation at 400 m based on the frequency distribution of the data that is excluding extreme outliers (Figure ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Declining and endangered in many Central European countries, grouse (Tetraoninae) have become a common model for conservation‐related endocrinological studies. As these species are highly susceptible to human disturbance (Coppes, Ehrlacher, Thiel, Suchant, & Braunisch, ; Storch, ; Summers, McFarlane, & Pearce‐Higgins, ; Thiel et al., ), their stress response has been elucidated particularly in relation to human recreation activities: Elevated FCM levels were found after repeated flushing in black grouse Tetrao tetrix (Arlettaz et al., ), with decreasing distance to recreational infrastructure in capercaillie Tetrao urogallus (Thiel et al., ) and in areas severely disturbed by winter sports in both species (Formenti et al., ; Thiel, Jenni‐Eiermann, Braunisch, Palme, & Jenni, ). Furthermore, tree species composition and ambient temperature were found to affect FCM levels in capercaillie (Thiel et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our study, we collected faecal samples across the entire geographical range of an endangered central European capercaillie population. We chose capercaillie as an ideal study model because FCM are calibrated (Thiel et al., ), they occur in various landscapes (Klaus et al., ) and they respond to various stressors such as predation (Kämmerle, Coppes, Ciuti, Suchant, & Storch, ), climate change (Braunisch et al., ), habitat degradation (Suchant & Braunisch, ) and human disturbance (Coppes et al., ) while being threatened throughout their central European range (Storch, ). By combining FCM measurements in three consecutive winters with genetic (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The importance of individual heterogeneity for interpreting faecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels in wildlife studies

Coppes

Kämmerle

Willert

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Ecology

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As a non‐invasive and inexpensive method, the use of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) analysis in wildlife research is increasing. Various environmental factors have been shown to influence FGM levels, or faecal corticosteroid metabolites (FCM) levels in birds, but most studies do not account for inter‐individual variance, which we hypothesized may substantially affect results. We combined FCM analysis with genetic analysis to identify the sex and individual's identity in samples collected in three consecutive winters; with repeated samples per individual, across the entire range of an endangered population of capercaillie Tetrao urogallus in south‐western Germany. Using generalized additive mixed models, we modelled FCM levels as a function of sex, season and environmental covariates at two spatial scales: location and home range. We compared two models: one including information on the individual animal and the other excluding this information (i.e. naïve model) to assess the influence of individual heterogeneity on the results obtained. Models accounting for inter‐individual differences explained 44.0% and 45.1% (at the location and home‐range scale respectively), while only very little (4.0% and 5.1%, respectively) was explained by the environmental predictors. When ignoring individual effects, the model results changed considerably with other, previously non‐informative predictors, becoming significant. In the full models, accounting for inter‐individual variance, weather conditions had no effect at either scale. FCM levels were negatively correlated with habitat quality at the sampling location, while human recreation at the home‐range scale led to elevated FCM levels. In the naïve models, two additional predictors appeared significant: one weather variable at the local scales and two at the home‐range scale. In all models, seasonal FCM patterns differed significantly between males and females. Synthesis and applications. By combining faecal corticosteroid metabolites (FCM) analysis with genetic individual assessment, we demonstrate that individual heterogeneity can explain most of the variance in faecal corticosteroid metabolites levels and that ignoring this information can lead to erroneous conclusions when testing for environmental stressors. We therefore stress the importance of identifying individuals when studying faecal corticosteroid metabolites in wildlife and recommend combining faecal corticosteroid metabolites analyses with genetic analyses to adequately address this issue.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The importance of individual heterogeneity for interpreting faecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels in wildlife studies

Coppes

Kämmerle

Willert

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Sharing the same slope: Behavioral responses of a threatened mesocarnivore to motorized and nonmotorized winter recreation

Olson

Squires

Roberts

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Winter recreation is a widely popular activity and is expected to increase due to changes in recreation technology and human population growth. Wildlife are frequently negatively impacted by winter recreation, however, through displacement from habitat, alteration of activity patterns, or changes in movement behavior. We studied impacts of dispersed and developed winter recreation on Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) at their southwestern range periphery in Colorado, USA. We used GPS collars to track movements of 18 adult lynx over 4 years, coupled with GPS devices that logged 2,839 unique recreation tracks to provide a detailed spatial estimate of recreation intensity. We assessed changes in lynx spatial and temporal patterns in response to motorized and nonmotorized recreation, as well as differences in movement rate and path tortuosity. We found that lynx decreased their movement rate in areas with high‐intensity back‐country skiing and snowmobiling, and adjusted their temporal patterns so that they were more active at night in areas with high‐intensity recreation. We did not find consistent evidence of spatial avoidance of recreation: lynx exhibited some avoidance of areas with motorized recreation, but selected areas in close proximity to nonmotorized recreation trails. Lynx appeared to avoid high‐intensity developed ski resorts, however, especially when recreation was most intense. We conclude that lynx in our study areas did not exhibit strong negative responses to dispersed recreation, but instead altered their behavior and temporal patterns in a nuanced response to recreation, perhaps to decrease direct interactions with recreationists. However, based on observed avoidance of developed recreation, there may be a threshold of human disturbance above which lynx cannot coexist with winter recreation.

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Importance and effectiveness of correction methods for spatial sampling bias in species with sex‐specific habitat preference

Glad

Monnet

Pagel

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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AimPresence records from surveys with spatially heterogeneous sampling intensity are a key challenge for species distribution models (SDMs). When sex groups differ in their habitat association, the correction of the spatial bias becomes important for preventing model predictions that are biased toward one sex. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effectiveness of existing correction methods for spatial sampling bias for SDMs when male and female have different habitat preferences.LocationJura massif, France.MethodsWe used a spatially sex‐segregated virtual species to understand the effect of three sampling designs (spatially biased, uniform random, and systematic), and two correction methods (targeted background points, and distance to trajectories) on estimated habitat preferences, sex ratios, and prediction accuracy. We then evaluated these effects for two empirical Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) presence‐only datasets from a systematic and a spatially biased sampling design.ResultsSampling design strongly affected parameter estimation accuracy for the virtual species: noncorrected spatially biased sampling resulted in biased estimates of habitat association and sex ratios. Both established methods of bias correction were successful in the case of virtual species, with the targeted correction methods showing stronger correction, as it more closely followed the simulated decay of detectability with distance from sampling locations. On the Capercaillie dataset, only the targeted background points method resulted in the same sex ratio estimate for the spatially biased sampling design as for the spatially unbiased sampling.Main conclusionsWe suggest that information on subgroups with distinct habitat associations should be included in SDMs analyses when possible. We conclude that current methods for correcting spatially biased sampling can improve estimates of both habitat association and subgroup ratios (e.g., sex and age), but that their efficiency depends on their ability to well represent the spatial observation bias.

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Outdoor recreation causes effective habitat reduction in Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus: a major threat for geographically restricted populations

Cited by 20 publications

References 0 publications

The importance of individual heterogeneity for interpreting faecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels in wildlife studies

The importance of individual heterogeneity for interpreting faecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels in wildlife studies

Sharing the same slope: Behavioral responses of a threatened mesocarnivore to motorized and nonmotorized winter recreation

Importance and effectiveness of correction methods for spatial sampling bias in species with sex‐specific habitat preference

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