Nest platforms increase aggressive behavior in common loons

Abstract

Artificial manipulations of habitat, such as those that incorporate adding nesting boxes or platforms for birds, often enhance the breeding success of threatened animals. However, such alterations are likely to have unintended behavioral and ecological effects that might negatively impact the target species or others in its community. We conducted a controlled study to investigate the effect of artificial nesting platforms on aggressive behavior and reproductive success of male common loons (Gavia immer). Males residing on territories to which platforms were added produced longer territorial "yodels" (reflecting willingness to escalate a contest), experienced increased levels of confrontation and aggression with territorial intruders, and experienced increased rates of territorial displacement by intruders. Surprisingly, males of treatment territories also experienced lower productivity. Therefore, in addition to providing novel empirical support of sequential assessment models of animal contests that predict contest escalation with increasing resource quality, this study is one of a few to show that tools used to mitigate habitat loss can negatively impact reproductive fitness in a threatened species.

Use of display platforms of Common Coots (Fulica atra) compared with the use of nests during breeding seasons

“…Wright and Taylor (2000) suggested that nesting plat-forms might increase aggressive interactions in Common Loons (Gavia immer). Mager III et al (2008) also found that nest platforms increased aggressive behavior in Common Loons. These results suggest that platforms are associated with territorial behavior.…”

The Interaction of Female Condition and Mating Status on Male‐Male Aggression in a Wolf Spider

“…that independently affect either the resolution of contests or levels of male-male aggression (e.g. Wells 1988;Bridge et al 2000;Hoefler 2002;Guerra & Mason 2005;Lindströ m & Pampoulie 2005;Arnott & Elwood 2007;Goubault et al 2007;Jonart et al 2007;Mager et al 2008), very few (e.g. Dick & Elwood 1990) have explored how interacting qualities of disputed resources affect aggression.…”