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Nest Predation Deviates from Nest Predator Abundance in an Ecologically Trapped Bird

In human-modified environments, ecological traps may result from a preference for low-quality habitat where survival or reproductive success is lower than in high-quality habitat. It has often been shown that low reproductive success for birds in preferred habitat types was due to higher nest predat...

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Autores principales: Hollander, Franck A., Van Dyck, Hans, San Martin, Gilles, Titeux, Nicolas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666632/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26624619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144098
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author Hollander, Franck A.
Van Dyck, Hans
San Martin, Gilles
Titeux, Nicolas
author_facet Hollander, Franck A.
Van Dyck, Hans
San Martin, Gilles
Titeux, Nicolas
author_sort Hollander, Franck A.
collection PubMed
description In human-modified environments, ecological traps may result from a preference for low-quality habitat where survival or reproductive success is lower than in high-quality habitat. It has often been shown that low reproductive success for birds in preferred habitat types was due to higher nest predator abundance. However, between-habitat differences in nest predation may only weakly correlate with differences in nest predator abundance. An ecological trap is at work in a farmland bird (Lanius collurio) that recently expanded its breeding habitat into open areas in plantation forests. This passerine bird shows a strong preference for forest habitat, but it has a higher nest success in farmland. We tested whether higher abundance of nest predators in the preferred habitat or, alternatively, a decoupling of nest predator abundance and nest predation explained this observed pattern of maladaptive habitat selection. More than 90% of brood failures were attributed to nest predation. Nest predator abundance was more than 50% higher in farmland, but nest predation was 17% higher in forest. Differences between nest predation on actual shrike nests and on artificial nests suggested that parent shrikes may facilitate nest disclosure for predators in forest more than they do in farmland. The level of caution by parent shrikes when visiting their nest during a simulated nest predator intrusion was the same in the two habitats, but nest concealment was considerably lower in forest, which contributes to explaining the higher nest predation in this habitat. We conclude that a decoupling of nest predator abundance and nest predation may create ecological traps in human-modified environments.
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spelling pubmed-46666322015-12-10 Nest Predation Deviates from Nest Predator Abundance in an Ecologically Trapped Bird Hollander, Franck A. Van Dyck, Hans San Martin, Gilles Titeux, Nicolas PLoS One Research Article In human-modified environments, ecological traps may result from a preference for low-quality habitat where survival or reproductive success is lower than in high-quality habitat. It has often been shown that low reproductive success for birds in preferred habitat types was due to higher nest predator abundance. However, between-habitat differences in nest predation may only weakly correlate with differences in nest predator abundance. An ecological trap is at work in a farmland bird (Lanius collurio) that recently expanded its breeding habitat into open areas in plantation forests. This passerine bird shows a strong preference for forest habitat, but it has a higher nest success in farmland. We tested whether higher abundance of nest predators in the preferred habitat or, alternatively, a decoupling of nest predator abundance and nest predation explained this observed pattern of maladaptive habitat selection. More than 90% of brood failures were attributed to nest predation. Nest predator abundance was more than 50% higher in farmland, but nest predation was 17% higher in forest. Differences between nest predation on actual shrike nests and on artificial nests suggested that parent shrikes may facilitate nest disclosure for predators in forest more than they do in farmland. The level of caution by parent shrikes when visiting their nest during a simulated nest predator intrusion was the same in the two habitats, but nest concealment was considerably lower in forest, which contributes to explaining the higher nest predation in this habitat. We conclude that a decoupling of nest predator abundance and nest predation may create ecological traps in human-modified environments. Public Library of Science 2015-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4666632/ /pubmed/26624619 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144098 Text en © 2015 Hollander et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hollander, Franck A.
Van Dyck, Hans
San Martin, Gilles
Titeux, Nicolas
Nest Predation Deviates from Nest Predator Abundance in an Ecologically Trapped Bird
title Nest Predation Deviates from Nest Predator Abundance in an Ecologically Trapped Bird
title_full Nest Predation Deviates from Nest Predator Abundance in an Ecologically Trapped Bird
title_fullStr Nest Predation Deviates from Nest Predator Abundance in an Ecologically Trapped Bird
title_full_unstemmed Nest Predation Deviates from Nest Predator Abundance in an Ecologically Trapped Bird
title_short Nest Predation Deviates from Nest Predator Abundance in an Ecologically Trapped Bird
title_sort nest predation deviates from nest predator abundance in an ecologically trapped bird
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666632/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26624619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144098
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