Survival of fallen and returned rooftop nesting Least Tern chicks

IF 1.4 4区环境科学与生态学 Q3 BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

Avian Conservation and Ecology Pub Date : 2024-03-31 DOI:10.5751/ace-02602-190107

Elizabeth A. Forys, Marianne G. Korosy, Jeff Leighty

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Beach habitat is increasingly degraded and disturbed, and many species of Larids (gulls, terns, and skimmers) have adapted to nesting on gravel rooftops. In the southeastern United States, the most common rooftop nester is the Least Tern (Sternula antillarum), and rooftop tern colonies are generally as productive as beach colonies. One problem with rooftop nesting is that chicks often fall from the roofs and will likely die if not rescued. Fallen chicks can be taken to wildlife rehabilitators and if they survive, be released on their own, but they will not receive the substantial pre- and post-fledgling parental care that Least Tern parents provide. We explored the success of placing chicks back on rooftops until they fledge and are able to travel to a staging beach. To determine long-term survival of these birds, from June 2011- July 2019, we uniquely banded 168 fallen Least Tern chicks in the Tampa Bay, Florida (USA) region and placed them back on the rooftops. From 2011-2022, we resighted banded birds on beaches, piers, and rooftops throughout Florida during the breeding season. We used the Cormack-Jolly-Seber model in Program Mark to estimate survival of juveniles and adults. The base model, where time was held constant for apparent survival and of both age classes and recapture rates, was the most parsimonious. We resighted 50 out of the 167 banded adult Least Terns a total of 347 times from 2012-2021. Apparent survival for fallen juvenile Least Terns was 0.387 ± 0.049 and 0.819 ± 0.032 for adult terns. There are no other studies of survival for juvenile Least Terns, but a closely related species had a slightly higher apparent survival. Adult survival in our study was comparable to that found in other similar Least Tern studies. This indicates that putting fallen Least Tern chicks back onto rooftops is a sound management strategy and should be explored for other species of seabirds.

The post Survival of fallen and returned rooftop nesting Least Tern chicks first appeared on Avian Conservation and Ecology.

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坠落和返回屋顶筑巢的燕鸥雏鸟的存活率

海滩栖息地日益退化和受到干扰，许多种类的燕鸥（海鸥、燕鸥和撇鳍鸥）已经适应了在砾石屋顶上筑巢。在美国东南部，最常见的屋顶筑巢者是燕鸥（Sternula antillarum），屋顶燕鸥群落的产量通常不亚于海滩燕鸥群落。屋顶燕鸥筑巢的一个问题是，雏鸟经常会从屋顶上掉下来，如果得不到救助，很可能会死亡。掉落的雏鸟可以被送到野生动物康复中心，如果它们能存活下来，就可以被自行放归，但它们不会像最老燕鸥的父母那样在雏鸟羽化前和羽化后得到父母的大量照顾。我们探讨了将雏鸟放回屋顶直到它们羽化并能够前往中转海滩的成功率。为了确定这些鸟类的长期存活率，从 2011 年 6 月到 2019 年 7 月，我们在美国佛罗里达州坦帕湾对 168 只坠落的燕鸥雏鸟进行了独特的带环，并将它们放回屋顶。从 2011 年到 2022 年，我们在繁殖季节在佛罗里达州各地的海滩、码头和屋顶对带环鸟类进行了重见。我们使用 Mark 程序中的 Cormack-Jolly-Seber 模型来估计幼鸟和成鸟的存活率。在基本模型中，表观存活率、各年龄段存活率和重新捕获率的时间都保持不变，这是最合理的模型。从 2012 年到 2021 年，我们共对 167 只戴带的成年燕鸥中的 50 只进行了 347 次重捕。坠落的幼年燕鸥的表观存活率为 0.387 ± 0.049，成年燕鸥的表观存活率为 0.819 ± 0.032。目前还没有其他关于燕鸥幼鸟存活率的研究，但一个密切相关的物种的表观存活率略高。在我们的研究中，成鸟存活率与其他类似的燕鸥研究结果相当。这表明，将坠落的燕鸥雏鸟放回屋顶是一种合理的管理策略，应在其他种类的海鸟中进行探索。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Avian Conservation and Ecology BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION-ORNITHOLOGY

CiteScore

2.20

自引率

7.10%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Avian Conservation and Ecology is an open-access, fully electronic scientific journal, sponsored by the Society of Canadian Ornithologists and Birds Canada. We publish papers that are scientifically rigorous and relevant to the bird conservation community in a cost-effective electronic approach that makes them freely available to scientists and the public in real-time. ACE is a fully indexed ISSN journal that welcomes contributions from scientists all over the world. While the name of the journal implies a publication niche of conservation AND ecology, we think the theme of conservation THROUGH ecology provides a better sense of our purpose. As such, we are particularly interested in contributions that use a scientifically sound and rigorous approach to the achievement of avian conservation as revealed through insights into ecological principles and processes. Papers are expected to fall along a continuum of pure conservation and management at one end to more pure ecology at the other but our emphasis will be on those contributions with direct relevance to conservation objectives.