Nest-site fidelity in Red-tailed Tropicbirds informs costing a localised ant baiting strategy at Ashmore Reef. (2nd July 2020)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Nest-site fidelity in Red-tailed Tropicbirds informs costing a localised ant baiting strategy at Ashmore Reef. (2nd July 2020)
- Main Title:
- Nest-site fidelity in Red-tailed Tropicbirds informs costing a localised ant baiting strategy at Ashmore Reef
- Authors:
- Mott, Rowan
Hodgson, Jarrod C.
Herrod, Ashley
Clarke, Rohan H. - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: In many animal species, individuals re-use the breeding site they used in the previous breeding season. Consequently, they accrue benefits including reduced time searching for a territory, and enhanced predator avoidance. Many seabirds display high levels of nest-site fidelity. We sought to determine whether nest-site fidelity occurs in Red-tailed Tropicbirds ( Phaethon rubricauda ) breeding at Ashmore Reef (eastern Indian Ocean) by recording the nest location of individually-marked birds across three years (2012–2014). We found that Red-tailed Tropicbirds at this surface-nesting colony were highly faithful to their previous nest-site, with a median distance between successive nests of just 13.4 m. By using digitised vegetation maps for Ashmore Reef, we provide quantitative evidence that Red-tailed Tropicbird nest-site fidelity is not driven by a lack of suitable vegetated sites. These findings have important management implications because breeding success at this small, regionally-significant Red-tailed Tropicbird colony is negatively affected by an invasive species, the tropical fire ant ( Solenopsis geminata ). Using localised ant baiting around known Red-tailed Tropicbird nest-sites may confer benefits on current and future tropicbird breeding attempts. We estimated the financial cost per treatment to bait the 0.85 ha within 13.4 m of known Red-tailed Tropicbird nest-sites, an area expected to encompass half of all subsequent breeding attempts, to be low. ThisABSTRACT: In many animal species, individuals re-use the breeding site they used in the previous breeding season. Consequently, they accrue benefits including reduced time searching for a territory, and enhanced predator avoidance. Many seabirds display high levels of nest-site fidelity. We sought to determine whether nest-site fidelity occurs in Red-tailed Tropicbirds ( Phaethon rubricauda ) breeding at Ashmore Reef (eastern Indian Ocean) by recording the nest location of individually-marked birds across three years (2012–2014). We found that Red-tailed Tropicbirds at this surface-nesting colony were highly faithful to their previous nest-site, with a median distance between successive nests of just 13.4 m. By using digitised vegetation maps for Ashmore Reef, we provide quantitative evidence that Red-tailed Tropicbird nest-site fidelity is not driven by a lack of suitable vegetated sites. These findings have important management implications because breeding success at this small, regionally-significant Red-tailed Tropicbird colony is negatively affected by an invasive species, the tropical fire ant ( Solenopsis geminata ). Using localised ant baiting around known Red-tailed Tropicbird nest-sites may confer benefits on current and future tropicbird breeding attempts. We estimated the financial cost per treatment to bait the 0.85 ha within 13.4 m of known Red-tailed Tropicbird nest-sites, an area expected to encompass half of all subsequent breeding attempts, to be low. This represents a cost-effective interim management strategy prior to any island-wide eradication programme. Therefore, we recommend localised ant baiting around tropicbird nests within an adaptive management framework such that optimum baiting parameters can be resolved (e.g., baiting frequency, most effective baiting radius). … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Emu. Volume 120:Number 3(2020)
- Journal:
- Emu
- Issue:
- Volume 120:Number 3(2020)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 120, Issue 3 (2020)
- Year:
- 2020
- Volume:
- 120
- Issue:
- 3
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2020-0120-0003-0000
- Page Start:
- 269
- Page End:
- 273
- Publication Date:
- 2020-07-02
- Subjects:
- Breeding behaviour -- invasive invertebrate control -- invasive species management -- island conservation -- adaptive management -- site faithfulness
Birds -- Australasia -- Periodicals
Ornithology -- Australasia -- Periodicals
598.0994 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/temu20 ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/01584197.2020.1787847 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0158-4197
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 22726.xml