Landscape cover type, not social dominance, is associated with the winter movement patterns of Snowy Owls in temperate areas

McCabe, Rebecca A.; Therrien, Jean‐François; Wiebe, Karen L.; Gauthier, Gilles; Brinker, D.J.; Weidensaul, Scott; Elliott, Kyle H.

doi:10.1093/ornithology/ukaa082

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Because our sample included some individuals that were previously trapped and banded at airports in earlier years (6 owls) prior to receiving a tracking device, learned behavior and fidelity to previous wintering sites may explain the higher return rate of adult females. Higher return rates of immature males may be attributed to their larger wintering areas (e.g., x̅ = 190 ± 55 km 2 ; McCabe et al 2021 a ) compared to other age classes, which may be influenced by dominance and competitive exclusion in some parts of their winter range (Chang and Wiebe 2018). Furthermore, some factors, such as direction, may be airport‐specific and impose constraints on local management strategies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Site characteristics such as direction or distance from the airport or suitability of the land cover and habitat structure at the relocation site may affect return rates. In a recent study, McCabe et al (2021 a ) revealed that range‐residency (i.e., owls that exhibited bounded overwintering home ranges) was strongly associated with the proportion of croplands in the landscape, suggesting that some types of agricultural lands may provide enough prey (Heisler et al 2013) compared to other land cover types, to support overwintering owls and reduce the need to continuously move in search of prey in human‐dominated landscapes.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Factors associated with returns of snowy owls to airports following translocation

et al. 2022

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Human‐dominated environments often include ecological traps for wildlife, such as airports that may be perceived as suitable habitat by grassland birds but reduce fitness because of collisions with aircraft. Birds of prey are often attracted to airports where collisions with aircraft (i.e., bird strikes) are usually fatal for the birds and are a significant threat to flight safety. The snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) is known for its nomadism, exhibiting unpredictable and highly variable movements during the nonbreeding season, including being a common visitor to airports, which often have high small‐mammal populations and mimic flat, open habitats used naturally by owls. Since 2009, the Federal Aviation Administration reported an average of 22 snowy owl deaths annually due to aircraft collisions throughout 55 North American airports. To aid in active management of owls at airports, we assessed relocation data of 42 telemetry‐tracked snowy owls from 2000–2020 in the United States and Canada. Owls that returned to the airport after relocation (33%) frequently crisscrossed and perched near runways where they were at risk of strikes. Adult females and immature males were more likely to return than the other sex and age classes, and returns were less likely to occur as the distance between the release site and the airport increased. Owls relocated in open habitats with a greater proportion of wetland and cropland (including grasslands and pasture) land cover classes were also less likely to return. We conclude that inclusion of multiple factors to limit return rates of relocated snowy owls from airport facilities can unspring the ecological trap presented by airports to these owls.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Factors associated with returns of snowy owls to airports following translocation

et al. 2022

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“…In contrast, and again consistent with our expectations, younger and apparently non-territorial hawks were not tied to a specific nesting site and therefore had larger home-ranges. Although we restricted analyses to periods of residency, larger homeranges of non-territorial birds may still be associated with a higher degree of local wandering and exploration for potential breeding sites (Miller et al 2017, Watson et al 2019, McCabe et al 2021. The larger home-ranges we observed outside of the breeding season could have been linked to reduction in habitat quality due to changes in factors such as prey availability (Moss et al 2014 or a reduction in defensive behaviour and sharing of resources (Grande et al 2009).…”

Section: Documenting the Expectedmentioning

confidence: 95%

Ferruginous Hawk movements respond predictably to intra‐annual variation but unexpectedly to anthropogenic habitats

Isted

Thomas

Warner

et al. 2023

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Birds exhibit flexible movement responses to environmental variation across the annual cycle, and those responses can provide insight into potential impacts that environmental changes may have on these species. To understand year‐round variation in space use by Ferruginous Hawks Buteo regalis, we tracked 12 birds breeding in southwestern Idaho, USA, using GPS telemetry collected over 207 bird‐months. Home‐range sizes of territorial adult hawks showed strong intra‐annual variation, being smallest from April to June and largest from July to October. In contrast, juvenile birds (< 2 years old) did not appear to hold territories and showed no detectable intra‐annual variation in ranging behaviour. Association with land‐cover types by territorial birds varied between breeding and non‐breeding months and was linked to home‐range size. Home‐range sizes of non‐territorial birds were larger than those of territorial birds, and that size did not vary across the year. Association with anthropogenic habitats (irrigated cropland habitats that can provide high rodent densities and increased foraging opportunities) was negatively associated with home‐range size in months of the non‐breeding season. Unexpectedly, the opposite was true in the months of the breeding season, such that use of croplands resulted in larger home‐ranges. Patterns in home‐range size were probably linked to intrinsic factors such as the timing of breeding and migratory behaviour, and to extrinsic factors such as prey availability associated with specific land‐cover types. These results have implications for our understanding of the response of Ferruginous Hawks and other similar species to predicted changes in land cover, and they suggest unexpected relationships between human activity and wildlife behaviour. Furthermore, because the birds we tracked used a large portion of western North America, they are probably relevant far beyond the small area where these individuals were trapped.

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“…Snowy Owls exhibit a diversity of movement strategies throughout the year (McCabe et al 2021). During the non-breeding season, individuals regularly overwinter in the Canadian Prairies and the American Great Plains (Chang & Wiebe 2018), and throughout the entire temperate regions of North America during irruption years (Kerlinger & Lein 1988, Robillard et al 2016, Holt et al 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐term population decline of a genetically homogeneous continental‐wide top Arctic predator

Gousy-Leblanc

Therrien

Broquet

et al. 2023

Ibis

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Genetic analysis can provide valuable information for conservation programmes by unravelling the demographic trajectory of populations, estimating effective population size or inferring genetic differentiation between populations. Here, we investigated the genetic differentiation within Snowy Owls Bubo scandiacus in North America, a species identified as vulnerable by the IUCN, to (1) quantify connectivity among wintering areas, (2) evaluate current genetic diversity and effective population size, and (3) infer changes in the historical effective population size changes from the last millennia to the recent past. The Snowy Owl, a highly mobile top predator, breeds across the Arctic tundra, a region especially sensitive to current climate change. Using single‐nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)‐based analyses on Snowy Owls sampled across the North American non‐breeding range, we found an absence of genetic differentiation among individuals located up to 4650 km apart. Our results suggest high genetic intermixing and effective dispersal at the continental scale despite documented philopatry to non‐breeding sites in winter. Reconstructing the population demographic indicated that North American Snowy Owls have been steadily declining since the Last Glacial Maximum c. 20 000 years ago, and concurrently with global increases in temperature. Conservation programmes should now consider North American Snowy Owls a single, genetically homogeneous continental‐wide population which is probably sensitive to the long‐term global warming occurring since the Last Glacial Maximum.

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Landscape cover type, not social dominance, is associated with the winter movement patterns of Snowy Owls in temperate areas

Cited by 6 publications

References 52 publications

Factors associated with returns of snowy owls to airports following translocation

Factors associated with returns of snowy owls to airports following translocation

Ferruginous Hawk movements respond predictably to intra‐annual variation but unexpectedly to anthropogenic habitats

Long‐term population decline of a genetically homogeneous continental‐wide top Arctic predator

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