Anything for a quiet life: shelter from mobbers drives reproductive success in a top-level avian predator
Authors
Rebollo De La Torre, Salvador; Pérez Camacho, Lorenzo; Martínez Hesterkamp, Sara; Tapia, Luis; Fernández Pereira, José Manuel; [et al.]Identifiers
Permanent link (URI): http://hdl.handle.net/10017/60025DOI: 10.1111/jav.03060
ISSN: 0908-8857
Date
2023-01-01Funders
Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico
Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Comunidad de Madrid
Universidad de Alcalá
Bibliographic citation
Journal of Avian Biology, 2023, v. E03060, n. , p. -
Keywords
Accipiter gentilis
Biotic disturbances
Breeding success
Corvids
Feeding ecology
Hunting efficiency
Prey accessibility
Territory quality
Description / Notes
17 p.
Project
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MEC//BES-2008-
006630/ES//
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICIN//PID2019-109711RJ-I00/ES//
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/CM//CM%BG%2021-003/ES//
Document type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Version
info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion
Rights
© 2022 The Authors
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Access rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Abstract
Understanding how habitat structure relates to reproductive performance of species can help identify what habitats are of the highest quality for a given species and thereby guide effective management. Here, we compared the influence of prey abundance and the amount of shelter area on the relationship between habitat and breeding performance. We focused on the forest-dwelling northern goshawk Accipiter gentilis in an agroforestry system. Using structural equation modelling, we tested the associations between reproductive performance and three explanatory factors: habitat structure, abundance of food resources or levels of mobbing disturbance, and prey supply to the nest. Our results suggest that habitat structure influences reproductive performance through shelter rather than through prey abundance. During the study period, forested habitats in the breeding territories provided shelter to the goshawk, reducing disturbance by carrion crows Corvus corone, which acted as large, aggressive, social mobbers. Decreased disturbance increased prey supply to the nest, probably because it favored food accessibility and male goshawk foraging efficiency. Habitat was not significantly associated with quality of the breeders, both in terms of body size and seniority in the territories. Our findings suggest that reproductive performance, and therefore habitat quality, may depend more on sheltered access to food resources than on the amount of food available. Our observation that mobbers decrease predator foraging efficiency highlights the possibility of designing effective, socially acceptable predator management strategies to protect sensitive domestic prey.
Files in this item
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anything_rebollo_JAV_2023.pdf | 919.6Kb |
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anything_rebollo_JAV_2023.pdf | 919.6Kb |
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