Using dietary analysis and habitat selection to inform conservation management of reintroduced Great Bustards<i>Otis tarda</i>in an agricultural landscape

Gooch, Scott; Ashbrook, Kate; Taylor, Andrew; Székely, Tamás

doi:10.1080/00063657.2015.1050993

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 71 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Los niveles de significación (* : p < 0,05) y los rangos se muestran de acuerdo con una aleatorización de los resultados.] Legume crops were the substrate type most preferred by both sexes (Table 3), as reported in previous studies of foraging behaviour of Great Bustards (Lane et al, 1999;Gooch et al, 2015). Accordingly, the foraging area size decreased with legume availability in both sexes.…”

Section: Tablesupporting

confidence: 81%

“…Both sexes are mostly herbivorous, preferring broad-leaved plants, and in some seasons also insects, seeds and fruits (Lane et al, 1999;Gooch et al, 2015;Bravo et al, 2016). However, males and females show small but significant differences in the composition of their diet when they are juveniles (Bravo et al, 2012;Gooch et al, 2015) and adults (Bravo et al, 2016). These differences result in a mean dietary overlap between adult males and females of 70%, one of the smallest known values among birds (Bravo et al, 2016).…”

Section: Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Food Availability But Not Sex Determines Morning Foraging Area Size in the Great Bustard Otis tarda, the Most Sexually Size-Dimorphic Bird Species

Bautista

Bravo

Ponce

et al. 2017

Ardeola

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) may favour physiological peculiarities in diet, behaviour and home-range size both across species and within species. Sex-specific differences in diet and behaviour have been reported in several bird species but there are fewer studies of foraging area size in sexually dimorphic bird species. Foraging area size should be greater in the bigger sex according to home-range size predictions based on body mass. We tested this prediction in a winter study of foraging area size in the Great Bustard Otis tarda, the most sexually size-dimorphic bird species, which forages in unisexual flocks. In this species the temporal pattern of a flock's feeding intensity; the proportion of birds actively feeding (FI) and the size of the morning foraging area (MFA) of each sex are unknown. We recorded the behaviour and movements of unisexual flocks of Great Bustards during winter mornings and sampled food availability to take into account its effect on FI and MFA. FI increased and then decreased through the morning in both sexes, and was lower in males than in females. This sexual difference was greater where legume availability was smaller. Legumes were the most preferred substrate type. Consequently, MFA sizes were smaller in sites with more legume availability. We did not find sexual differences either in the size of MFA or in the selection of the two preferred substrate types: legumes and stubble fields. MFA and FI were determined to a greater extent by ecological factors such as food availability than by metabolic requirements derived from body size differences. These results obtained from a short-term study do not preclude an effect of sexual size dimorphism

show abstract

Section: Tablesupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food Availability But Not Sex Determines Morning Foraging Area Size in the Great Bustard Otis tarda, the Most Sexually Size-Dimorphic Bird Species

Bautista

Bravo

Ponce

et al. 2017

Ardeola

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Better understanding the feeding ecology of a threatened endemic species through diet analysis is an essential step towards its long-term conservation and management (e.g. Gooch et al 2015;Resano-Mayor et al 2016). Trophic analyses also reveal complex trophic interactions between sympatric introduced and native species, particularly relevant to islands simultaneously threatened by several introduced species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stuck amongst introduced species: Trophic ecology reveals complex relationships between the critically endangered Niau kingfisher and introduced predators, competitors and prey

Zarzoso-Lacoste¹,

Bonnaud²,

Corse³

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The introduction of mammals on oceanic islands currently threatens or has caused the extinction of many endemic species. Cats and rats represent the major threat for 40 % of currently endangered island bird species. Direct (predation) and/or indirect (exploitative competition for food resource) trophic interactions are key mechanisms by which invaders cause the decrease or extinction of native populations. Here, we investigated both direct and indirect trophic interactions amongst four predator species (i.e. animals that hunt, kill and feed on other animals), including three introduced mammals (Felis silvestris catus, Rattus rattus and A peer-reviewed open-access journal NeoBiotaDiane Zarzoso-Lacoste et al. / NeoBiota 53: 61-82 (2019) 62Rattus exulans) and one critically endangered native bird, the Niau kingfisher (Todiramphus gertrudae). All four species' diets and prey availability were assessed from sampling at the six main kingfisher habitats on Niau Island during the breeding season. Diet analyses were conducted on 578 cat scats, 295 rat digestive tracts (218 R. exulans and 77 R. rattus) and 186 kingfisher pellets. Despite simultaneous use of morphological and PCR-based methods, no bird remains in cat and rat diet samples could be assigned to the Niau kingfisher, weakening the hypothesis of current intense predation pressure. However, we determined that Niau kingfishers mainly feed on introduced and/or cryptogenic prey and highlighted the potential for exploitative competition between this bird and both introduced rat species (for Dictyoptera, Coleoptera and Scincidae). We recommend removing the cats and both rat species, at least within kingfisher breeding and foraging areas (e.g. mechanical or chemical control, cat sterilisation, biosecurity reinforcement), to simultaneously decrease predation risk, increase key prey availability and boost kingfisher population dynamics.

show abstract

“…In terms of Great Bustard conservation and management, we suggest reserves maintain unharvested fields (mung bean), stubble fields (recently harvested cereal or legume fields), and naturally unplowed lands for wintering Great Bustard. Farmland provided the main dietary plants, which is the case of the nominal subspecies (Gooch et al., ), meaning Great Bustard's dependency on the continuation of farming practices (Delibes, Corbacho, Calvo, & Fedriani, ; Martín, Martínez, Bautista, & Martin, ). This dependency, however, in the context of climate change and land‐use alteration, raises some concerns.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many studies indicate that plant items are the main food resources for Great Bustard in winter (Bravo et al, 2012;Gooch, Ashbrook, Taylor, & Székely, 2015), and vertebrate and invertebrate remains in diet are not our focus in this study. The universal P6 loop of the chloroplast trnL (UAA) intron was amplified by PCR (Taberlet et al, 2007).…”

Section: Fecal Sampling and Dietary Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Meta‐barcoding insights into the spatial and temporal dietary patterns of the threatened Asian Great Bustard (Otis tarda dybowskii) with potential implications for diverging migratory strategies

Liu

Shafer

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Food resources are often not sufficient to satisfy the nutritional and energetic requirements during winter conditions at high latitudes. Dietary analysis is a prerequisite to fully understanding the feeding ecology of a species and the nature of trophic interactions. Previous dietary studies of Asian Great Bustard (Otis tarda dybowskii) relied on behavioral observations, resulting in categorization of diet limited to broad taxonomic groupings. Here, we applied a high‐throughput sequencing meta‐barcoding approach to quantify the diet of resident and migratory Asian Great Bustard in three wintering sites during early winter and late winter. We detected 57 unique plant taxa in the bustard diet, among which 15 species were confirmed by a local plant database we generated. Both agricultural and natural foods were detected, indicating a relatively broad dietary niche. Spatiotemporal dietary changes were discovered, revealing diet differences among wintering sites and a general shift toward lower plant diversity later in winter. For the nonmigratory population, we detected a significantly more diverse array of plant species in their diet. We hypothesize that dietary variation between resident and migratory populations could be involved in the recent transition to partial migration in this species, although climate change can not be excluded. Collectively, these results support protecting unharvested grain fields and naturally unplowed lands to help conserve and promote population growth of Asian Great Bustard.

show abstract

Using dietary analysis and habitat selection to inform conservation management of reintroduced Great BustardsOtis tardain an agricultural landscape

Cited by 14 publications

References 71 publications

Food Availability But Not Sex Determines Morning Foraging Area Size in the Great Bustard Otis tarda, the Most Sexually Size-Dimorphic Bird Species

Food Availability But Not Sex Determines Morning Foraging Area Size in the Great Bustard Otis tarda, the Most Sexually Size-Dimorphic Bird Species

Stuck amongst introduced species: Trophic ecology reveals complex relationships between the critically endangered Niau kingfisher and introduced predators, competitors and prey

Meta‐barcoding insights into the spatial and temporal dietary patterns of the threatened Asian Great Bustard (Otis tarda dybowskii) with potential implications for diverging migratory strategies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About