Wintering of Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus) in Sicily: new data

Vittorio, Massimiliano Di; Trapani, Ettore Di; Faraone, Francesco; Ciaccio,; Sciagura, N.; D'Amico, Daniele; Giacalone, Gabriele; Zafarana, M.; Grenci, S.; Sarto, Andrea del

doi:10.32800/amz.2016.14.0114

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The probability of switching migration tactic should increase with age particularly for residents 67 , but what causes the differences in wintering numbers is unknown. To date, there are only two sites in western Europe where similar behaviour had been reported, with only 20–30 individuals surveyed in the mid-eighties in the south of Spain 41 and, more recently, three individuals in Sicily (Italy) 42 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Apart from these mainland populations, there are also sedentary populations inhabiting in Mediterranean islands (i.e., Menorca) and Macaronesian islands (Canary Islands, Cape Verde), and non-migratory breeding populations in sub-Saharan Africa 37 . Moreover, records from wintering individuals exist in southern Spain since mid-eighties 41 , and more recently, one young and two adults were observed in Sicily (Italy) during the wintering season 2015–2016 42 . During the twentieth century, the population of this long-lived scavenger has steadily declined across large parts of its European and African range, mainly due to unnatural mortality caused by poisoning and electrocution 35 , 43 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Winter movement patterns of a globally endangered avian scavenger in south-western Europe

Morant

Abad‐Gómez

Álvarez³

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Partial migration, whereby some individuals migrate and some do not, is relatively common and widespread among animals. Switching between migration tactics (from migratory to resident or vice versa) occurs at individual and population levels. Here, we describe for the first time the movement ecology of the largest wintering population of Egyptian Vultures (Neophron percnopterus) in south-west Europe. We combined field surveys and GPS tracking data from December to February during four wintering seasons (2014–2018). The wintering population consisted on average of 85 individuals (range 58–121; 76% adults and 24% subadults). Individuals were counted at five different roosting sites located near farms, unauthorized carcass deposition sites and authorized carcass deposition sites. Our results show that vultures tend to remain close to the roosting site. Moreover, we observed that females exhibited smaller home range sizes than males, which suggests a possible differential use of food sources. Overall, birds relied more on farms than other available food resources, particularly subadult individuals which exploited more intensively these sites. Our results showed that Egyptian Vultures congregate in significant numbers at specific sites throughout the winter period in south-west Spain and that these roosting and feeding sites should be given some level of legal protection and regular monitoring. Furthermore, predictable food sources might be driving the apparent increase in the non-migratory population of Egyptian Vultures, as observed in other avian species which are also changing their migratory behavior.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Winter movement patterns of a globally endangered avian scavenger in south-western Europe

Morant

Abad‐Gómez

Álvarez³

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The current scenario of climate change adds uncertainty to population persistence (Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al, 2020), while some trans-Saharan migratory species are already changing their behaviour and becoming sedentary in the southern countries of Europe. This includes at least the Egyptian vulture (Di Vittorio et al 2016), lesser kestrel (Negro et al 1991), booted eagle (Mellone et al, 2013) and short-toed eagle (Martínez & Sánchez-Zapata 1999). In addition, African species are entering Europe from the south, as it possibly happened with the black-shouldered kite in historical times (Balbontín et al, 2008) and it is just starting with Ruppell’s vulture (Ramírez et al, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generation of raptor diversity in Europe: linking speciation with climate changes and the ability to migrate

Negro

Rodríguez-Rodríguez

Rodríguez

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The majority (58%) of raptors abandons their breeding ground and migrates to distant areas, sometimes in other continents. In the case of European breeding raptors, we can observe that in groups of species that share similar trophic niches (sometimes these species are taxonomically closely related), only some of them (one in the case of groups formed by only a pair) do a large distance migration. In this work we analyze the trophic niche of European raptors, with the objective of obtaining trophic niche groups. Once we have these niche groups, we related them with the migration behavior and taxonomy of species. Our results show that the smallest species inside these niche groups are those that migrates at long distance, suggesting that competence by resources in the less favorable seasons promote the migratory behavior in the weakest species.

show abstract

“…The current scenario of climate change adds uncertainty to population persistence ( Donázar et al, 2016 ; Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al, 2020 ), while some trans-Saharan migratory species are already changing their behaviour and becoming non-migratory in southern Europe. This includes at least the Egyptian vulture ( Di Vittorio et al, 2016 ), lesser kestrel ( Negro, De la Riva & Bustamante, 1991 ), booted eagle ( Mellone et al, 2013 ) and short-toed eagle ( Martínez & Sánchez-Zapata, 1999 ). In addition, African species are entering Europe from the south, as it possibly happened with the black-shouldered kite in historical times ( Balbontín et al, 2008 ; Rivera et al, 2022 ), and it is just starting with the Ruppell’s vulture ( Ramírez et al, 2011 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generation of raptor diversity in Europe: linking speciation with climate changes and the ability to migrate

Negro

Rodríguez-Rodríguez

Rodríguez

et al. 2022

PeerJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Europe holds a rich community of diurnal birds of prey, and the highest proportion of transcontinental migratory raptorial species of any landmass. This study will test the hypotheses that the high diversification of the raptor assemblage in Europe is a recent event, that closely related species sharing the same trophic niches can only coexist in sympatry during the breeding period, when food availability is higher, and finally that migration is a function of size, with the smaller species in every trophic group moving further. A consensus molecular phylogeny for the 38 regular breeding species of raptors in Europe was obtained from BirdTree (www.birdtree.org). For the same species, a trophic niche cluster dendrogram was constructed. Size and migratory strategy were introduced in the resulting phylogeny, where trophic groups were also identified. Multispecific trophic groups tended to be composed of reciprocal sister species of different sizes, while monospecific groups (n = 3) were composed of highly specialized species. Many speciation events took place recently, during the glacial cycles of the Quaternary, and size divergence among competing species may be due to character displacement. Nowadays, the smaller species in every trophic group migrate to sub-Saharan Africa. This investigation illustrates how the rich assemblage of diurnal birds of prey in Europe, more diverse and more migratory than, for instance, the North American assemblage at equivalent latitudes, has emerged recently due to the multiplication of look-alike species with similar trophic ecologies, possibly in climate refugia during cold periods.

show abstract

Wintering of Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus) in Sicily: new data

Cited by 5 publications

References 5 publications

Winter movement patterns of a globally endangered avian scavenger in south-western Europe

Winter movement patterns of a globally endangered avian scavenger in south-western Europe

Generation of raptor diversity in Europe: linking speciation with climate changes and the ability to migrate

Generation of raptor diversity in Europe: linking speciation with climate changes and the ability to migrate

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About