Habitat geometry rather than visual acuity limits the visibility of a ground-nesting bird's clutch to terrestrial predators.

Autor: Hancock GRA; Centre for Ecology and Conservation University of Exeter Penryn UK., Grayshon L; Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fordingbridge UK., Burrell R; Faculty of Science and Technology Bournemouth University Dorset UK., Cuthill I; School of Biological Sciences University of Bristol Bristol UK., Hoodless A; Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fordingbridge UK., Troscianko J; Centre for Ecology and Conservation University of Exeter Penryn UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecology and evolution [Ecol Evol] 2023 Sep 14; Vol. 13 (9), pp. e10471. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Sep 14 (Print Publication: 2023).
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10471
Abstrakt: The nests of ground-nesting birds rely heavily on camouflage for their survival, and predation risk, often linked to ecological changes from human activity, is a major source of mortality. Numerous ground-nesting bird populations are in decline, so understanding the effects of camouflage on their nesting behavior is relevant to their conservation concerns. Habitat three-dimensional (3D) geometry, together with predator visual abilities, viewing distance, and viewing angle, determine whether a nest is either visible, occluded, or too far away to detect. While this link is intuitive, few studies have investigated how fine-scale geometry is likely to help defend nests from different predator guilds. We quantified nest visibility based on 3D occlusion, camouflage, and predator visual modeling in northern lapwings, Vanellus vanellus , on different land management regimes. Lapwings selected local backgrounds that had a higher 3D complexity at a spatial scale greater than their entire clutches compared to local control sites. Importantly, our findings show that habitat geometry-rather than predator visual acuity-restricts nest visibility for terrestrial predators and that their field habitats, perceived by humans as open, are functionally closed with respect to a terrestrial predator searching for nests on the ground. Taken together with lapwings' careful nest site selection, our findings highlight the importance of considering habitat geometry for understanding the evolutionary ecology and management of conservation sites for ground-nesting birds.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
(© 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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