Nest-site or landscape features, that is the question: Varying influence of anthropogenic and predation effects on nest survival of a threatened Amazon parrot

Abstract

Anthropogenic activities are the major drivers of biodiversity loss, and human pressure of capture for trade is closely associated with decreasing population trends of Psittaciformes. We evaluated reproductive output and daily survival rate of 45 nests of the threatened Northern Mealy Amazon (Amazona guatemalae) in tropical moist forest of southern Mexico to determine the influence of anthropogenic and natural factors on nest survival. We applied GLMM to determine which variables, at three scales of: nest-site; habitat; and landscape level, influenced daily survival of nests when failure was due to anthropogenic factors or animal predation. Northern Mealy Amazons had a high 74 % loss of initial reproductive investment of 2.6 ± 0.6 eggs/female, resulting in a low reproductive output of 0.6 ± 1.1 nestlings >50 days old/female, mainly due to human poaching of nests. GLMM determined that human impacts on nest survival were influenced by the landscape feature of distance from the nearest village, with nests located >2.3 km from a human settlement having greater probability of survival. However, the risk of animal predation of nests was influenced by nest-site features, with higher, smaller, and deeper nest-cavities having increased daily survival. Our results suggest that while parrots may have evolved nest-site selection criteria to reduce the risks of animal predation, these may have less influence over survival when faced with anthropogenic threats. The increasing human pressures on wild populations require landscape level and socially-focused conservation strategies for threatened species.