Suitability of using the global positioning system (GPS) for studying Feral Pigeons<i>Columba livia</i>in the urban habitat

Rose, Eva; Nagel, Peter; Haag‐Wackernagel, Daniel

doi:10.1080/00063650509461384

Cited by 12 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…The feral pigeons used for this study are living in three lofts situated in public buildings in Basel, Switzerland (for a description of the lofts, see Rose et al 2005). The pigeons are free-living and use the lofts as breeding or sleeping places, but they must search for their food themselves like all urban feral pigeons.…”

Section: The Pigeonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The stored positions were represented on an electronic map of Basel (from the Grundbuch-und Vermessungsamt, Justizdepartement des Kantons Basel-Stadt) by the software MapInfo Professional (MapInfo Corporation Troy, New York). For more details about the method, see Rose et al (2005).…”

Section: Gps Receiversmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We expect an accuracy in the range of 0-25 m away from the real location in 40-95% of the recorded positions, depending on the proportion of open sky. Expected to lie within 100 m of the real location (Rose et al 2005) are 86-100% of the positions.…”

Section: Gps Receiversmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dummies and receivers were fixed on the pigeons' back with Velcro tape (one part glued onto the GPS, the counterpart glued onto the feathers of the birds) and with a harness consisting of two loops passing around the body and joined at the breast (Rose et al 2005).…”

Section: The Pigeonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…albatrosses (Jouventin and Weimerskirch 1990;Weimerskirch et al 1993Weimerskirch et al , 1994Weimerskirch et al , 2002Waugh et al 2000;Shaffer et al 2001;Nicholls et al 2002;Waugh and Weimerskirch 2003;Fukada et al 2004;Waugh et al 2005), frigatebirds (Weimerskirch et al 2004) white storks (Berthold et al 2002a,b), brent geese (Gudmundsson et al 1995), gannets (Hamer et al 2000(Hamer et al , 2001Grémillet et al 2004), red-footed boobies (Weimerskirch et al 2005), penguins (Guinet et al 1997;Taylor et al 2001) and homing pigeons (Von Hünerbein et al 2000;Biro et al 2002;Lipp et al 2004). We showed that this method is also suitable for the monitoring of feral pigeons in the urban habitat (Rose et al 2005). GPS tracking eliminates the bias due to the observation spots, as all places visited by the pigeons equipped with this design are automatically recorded.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatio-temporal use of the urban habitat by feral pigeons (Columba livia )

Rose

Nagel

Haag‐Wackernagel

2006

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Feral pigeons are descendants of wild rock pigeons that have adapted to the urban habitat. They have partially conserved the foraging behaviour of their wild ancestors (flights to agricultural areas) but have also developed new habits. Previous studies on the foraging strategies of feral pigeons have given various results, e.g. maximum distances reached by the pigeons (measured in a straight line from the resting places) differed between 0.3-0.5 km and 18-25 km. This study focuses on the spatiotemporal activity of feral pigeons in the urban habitat. We equipped 80 free-living feral pigeons from Basel, Switzerland with GPS receivers. We found three different foraging strategies for pigeons in Basel: (1) in the streets, squares and parks near the home loft, (2) in agricultural areas surrounding the city, (3) on docks and railway lines in harbours. The maximum distance reached by a pigeon was 5.29 km. More than 32% of the pigeons remained within 0.3 km of the home lofts and only 7.5% flew distances of more than 2 km. Females covered significantly longer distances than males, preferring to fly to more abundant and predictable food sources. Temporal activity patterns showed to be influenced by sex, breeding state and season. In contrast to wild rock pigeons and to feral pigeons in other cities, pigeons in Basel showed a clear bimodal activity pattern for breeding birds only. The differences between our results and those of other studies seem to be partly methoddependent, as the GPS-technique allows to record the pigeons' localisations continuously in contrast to other methods. Other differences might be due to different kinds of food supply in the various cities. Our study shows that feral pigeons have individual foraging strategies and are flexible enough to adapt to different urban environments.

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Section: The Pigeonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gps Receiversmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gps Receiversmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Pigeonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Spatio-temporal use of the urban habitat by feral pigeons (Columba livia )

Rose

Nagel

Haag‐Wackernagel

2006

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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GPS/GNSS Current Bibliography

Soler

2005

GPS Solut

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Fine-scale habitat selection of a small mammalian urban adapter: the West European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)

2022

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Understanding patterns of habitat selection and factors affecting space use is fundamental in animal conservation. In urban landscapes, such knowledge can be used to advise householders on how best to manage their gardens for wildlife. In this study, we tracked 28 West European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus), a species of conservation concern in the UK, in an area of high-density housing using radio and GPS tags to quantify patterns of habitat use and identify factors associated with the proportion of time spent in individual gardens. Both males and females exhibited a preference for residential gardens, but there were subtle differences between the sexes in relation to house type and front versus back gardens. Hedgehogs spent significantly more time in gardens where artificial food was provided, where a compost heap was present, if foxes (Vulpes vulpes) were infrequent visitors, if it rained overnight and as daylength increased (i.e., shorter nights); garden use was not significantly associated with variables potentially likely to reflect invertebrate prey abundance. These data suggest that the primary positive action that householders can undertake for urban hedgehogs is providing supplementary food. However, householders often feed hedgehogs after they know they are already visiting their garden. Consequently, the presence of artificial food may make it difficult to identify other important influences affecting garden use. Finally, we report that a GPS fix acquisition rate < 60% likely had no major effect on the results of our analyses, but should be a consideration in future studies using this technique on this species and in this habitat.

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Suitability of using the global positioning system (GPS) for studying Feral PigeonsColumba liviain the urban habitat

Cited by 12 publications

References 8 publications

Spatio-temporal use of the urban habitat by feral pigeons (Columba livia )

Spatio-temporal use of the urban habitat by feral pigeons (Columba livia )

GPS/GNSS Current Bibliography

Fine-scale habitat selection of a small mammalian urban adapter: the West European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)

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